


Bumi's Brew

by lazilazuli



Category: EXO (Band), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Cheating, College, Deceit, Drama, F/M, Fluff, Heartache, Photography, Romance, Sliceoflife
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2019-11-05 05:24:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 46,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17912819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazilazuli/pseuds/lazilazuli
Summary: Getting a new part-time job, for an easier commute between school and home, was photography major, Kim Taehyung's, one and only goal. But instead of getting to know his new co-workers during his first week, he managed to get himself slapped, ridiculed, and become an enemy to all his female co-workers, especially the most intimidating, Ahn Bumi.Between her and Park Chanyeol, he doesn't know who to fear the most. Sharp eyes that could unnerve any man, and a bark that could snap anyone back into place. He had only wanted to work quietly for his paycheck, not stir up trouble and recieve heart problems.And to think this all started over a stolen camera.- A shot of DECEIT"You're overthinking it. It's just a coincidence."- 2/3 of ENVY."It's not my business and it's not my place...but I can't get my heart to listen to me."- A whip of FLUTTERS cream."Tell me how I'm supposed to stop myself from falling for you any harder than this?"- And just a sprinkle of HEARTACHE on top."Why can't I ever reach you lately?"





	1. ||Bumi's Brew||

"Alright," he squeezed the strap of his laptop bag. "It's go-time."

 

The bell chimed as he pulled open the glass door and entered the shop. Dim lights that shined over the tasteful vintage cafe, mixed with a white and coffee colored vertical stripes painted down the wall, put him at ease. And then there was the strong scent of coffee and baked goods lingering in the air, wrapping around his nostrils, and turning the corners of his lips upward. It really was a calm environment, just like Chanwoo described it to be.

 

Taehyung took a deep breath to send the nerves on out before strolling up to one of the baristas. "Hello," he bowed slightly, still gripping the bag's strap.

 

"Hello, sir." You didn't bother lifting your eyes. "And what will you be having this afternoon?"

 

He blinked twice over, immediately taking away,  _'her ears...'_  They were just a bit bigger than the standard size; the tips peaking halfway out past your hair. But then he realized that by now his reply was slightly delayed, and cleared his throat to speak. "Actually, I'm here to see about getting a job here. I'd like to work as one of your part-time baristas."

 

"A job?" You lifted your eyes from the machine.

 

 _'She's pretty.'_  Was his second immediate thought. But the look in your feline-shaped eyes pierced him all the way out, leaving behind a slight chill to climb up his spine. Not even the slightest crack of amusement endowed your features.

 

You scanned him down from the top of his head to belt on his waist. Scruffy hair, thick glasses, with a pin-striped button-up. Just an overall tasteless fashion sense as far as you could see. "You want a job here?" you cocked a brow at him.

 

"Yes," he nodded. "My friend told me about the position about a week ago." Taehyung reached a clawed hand around to the back of his head, but paused before letting it fall back to his side. "I hope it's still open."

 

You took a side glance over at your fellow co-worker, who watched the scene from where she stood. There was a cracked smile on her face, but she tried folding her lips to help hold it in when another customer walked up to her.

 

"Follow me." You turned your back on him immediately.

 

Taehyung jogged around the counter as quickly as he could without trying to seem awkward about it and tailed you through the brown swinging door. He was led through the cafe's kitchen, where the walls were painted light gray, floor tiles colored white, and both the countertops and table made from metal. Two guys were found working below bright lights; one at the stove, checking on a batch of cookies, and the other swiftly making sandwiches on the metal table.

 

"Wow," his wide eyes tried to cover every nook and cranny of the place. "It's a lot bigger and cleaner than the kitchen at my last job," he muttered. When he passed by the sandwich guy, he managed to pick up his attention, getting himself eyed down all the way out the next door.

 

"Uncle," you called as you knocked on the door of his office. "Someone's here to see about the barista position."

 

"I got it. Bring him in for me!"

 

Taehyung's head snapped from left to right, trying to see what other doors there could be besides the new one he was now standing in front of. This part of the cafe hall had the dimmest lights, but the walls were wrapped in fine wallpaper, the same as the front of the cafe.

 

"In you go," you pushed the door open for him. "Good luck." Once again you sized him up and down, this time taking in his denim jean pants and sneakers.

 

"Thank you so much," he bowed to you once more.

 

"You just might need it," you muttered, before walking past him.

 

 _'What's that supposed to mean?'_  Taehyung thought. Now it was him who couldn't take his eyes off you until the door closed behind you. Were the job qualifications hard to meet? The jitters returned to him in a near instant, but he had no choice but to shake them loose before entering the room.

 

Sitting on his phone, with his phone cupped to his ear, the graying man looked from the corner of his eye at Taehyung. The younger bowed, but when he looked back up, the man bucked his chin upward and shifted his eyes past him.

 

"O-oh!" Taehyung quickly entered the office and closed the door behind him for privacy's sake. For the next minute or so, he stood in front of the door, hands clasped in front of his crotch, and eyes wandering around the room at certificates and paintings. Especially the large flower vase filled with dripping lilies and white roses.

 

"No worries...Mm, I'm hanging up now. Take care."

 

At those last words, Taehyung's vision found the owner's once again as soon as he put the phone down on his neatly organized desk. "Hello," he bowed again.

 

"Sorry about that. Why don't you come closer so that we can chat better, hm?" he ushered him over.

 

"It's nice to meet you, sir." He started walking. "My name is Taehyung. Kim Taehyung. I had heard about your last barista position from my friend that currently works here."

 

"Which friend?"

 

"Chanwoo, sir."

 

"Mm," he nodded in agreement. "Chanwoo's one of my best kids. If he's recommending a friend to this place, then that means he has faith in your abilities, yes? Do you have any experience working as a waiter?"

 

"Yes, sir. My previous job was at a restaurant, but I resigned due to transit problems. It was a bit too far away from my house."

 

"I see," he nodded. "At least you don't need training." He, too, scanned Taehyung from top to bottom. "There are a few qualifications to this job that you need, but if you meet most of them then I suppose it's fine. We get a lot of customers here from time to time, so we only have room for hard-working employees here."

 

"That's no problem at all, sir. I was one of my last boss' most diligent and trusted employees."

 

"Would you be able to come in during the weekends?"

 

"Of course," he nodded. But even with his good answers, the owner still looked dissatisfied.

 

 

"Hm..." his eyes bore into Taehyung's. "Do you think you can remove your glasses for me?"

 

"My glasses?" What did his glasses have to do with the interview? But he took them off anyway, leaving him with a bit of a squint in eyes. He shook his hair a bit and stood with his hands behind his back, lips pursed in anticipation.

 

Now his bottom lip was pushed out as if approving what he was seeing. "Have you tried wearing contacts?"

 

"Um...I've tried to wear them before, but I couldn't handle them and threw them away in the end."

 

"What a shame..." he trailed off. "Anyways, you're a lucky guy. We've been looking to hire someone for this position for a while, and since you're the only one who's interested, I suppose I can hand over this position to you."

 

"Really?" A grin broke out onto Taehyung's face as he slipped his glasses back on. "Thank you so much, sir!" He bowed twice over. "You won't regret this decision." The smile on his face seemed to widen.

 

"I believe you." The owner then swiveled his chair around to get a look at the calendar behind him. "Let's see, tomorrow is...Saturday. Make sure you're here at 7:10 in the morning, that way you can introduce yourself to most of the kids and have them show you how we do things here." The owner stood up. "For now, you can come with me and we can see to your uniform."

 

"Of course, sir. Thank you again." The grin on Taehyung's face didn't leave, even as he followed his new boss to get his uniform.

 

 

Ten minutes after seven, and Taehyung stood in front of Bumi's Brew for the second time. His palms sat moist in the pockets of his decrepit black jacket, and he couldn't stop blinking down at the gold door handle.

 

The white sign hung in the middle of the glass door, with the word 'closed' scripted in gold; yet the sun was still in the process of rising, the sky just about back, to its youthful blue. With this, there should at least be someone working around the dining room, right?

 

His hand was hesitant to grab hold and pull it the door open. In and out, he breathed to remove the pesky butterflies in his stomach. "I hope I make a good first impression," he muttered.

 

He reached for the chilled handle and listened to the chimes ring as he stepped foot into the soundless shop. "Hello?" he called out, hoping someone would hear him, and yet, nothing. "Maybe there's someone changing in the back?" he mumbled.

 

But that was put to rest when he heard muffled voices coming from further into the shop, most likely from the kitchen. Taehyung walked behind the glossy black counter and pushed open the white swinging doors to said room.

 

"Welcome to the team!" Poppers went off while streamers and pieces of confetti fluttered down in front of his stunned face. When Taehyung focused, both welcoming and not-so-welcoming faces stood before him. The latter seemed to show from the majority of his new female co-workers.

 

"I--Uh...Hello," he bowed immediately. "My name's Kim Taehyung, It's nice to make your acquaintance. I'll be working with all of you from now on, so I hope we can get--"

 

"Oho, well if it isn't ol' Shitface!"

 

Taehyung's heart stopped from the familiarity of that voice. He only needed to take a peek up from his bow stance to find the person who said that.  _'He really is here.' Taehyung thought._  "Ch--Chanyeol--" His words, as well as his neck got choked off by the arm that hooked around him.

 

"This is our new guy?" One of the girls with cheeks that looked as soft as mochi on a plate, had her arms crossed over her chest and a look of sheer disapproval on her face. She then leaned over to see how her peers to the right of her were reacting to this. "Son-nim is messing with us, right?" Her big front teeth gave her the feel of a bunny rabbit, but that rabbit had a creased forehead and an evident frown on her face.

 

"Me, Chanwoo, and this guy go back since high school," he flexed a bit harder. "Ain't that right, Shitface?" Chanyeol peered down at him with a shrewd smirk that he knew all too well.

 

"Ah, yeah..." he nodded. Chanwoo had told--more like warned him about taking this position. Though the job was closer to school and home, it had the one bastard that was the sole source for most of his nightmares.

 

"He doesn't look all that happy to see your face."

 

When Taehyung looked up to your voice, he immediately recognized you.  _'She's the one who took me to see the owner.'_  There you stood, angled up against the silver top table, black pencil skirt smoothed neatly down your thighs and a golden bowtie wrapped around the collar of your white button-down.

 

Ankle crossed over the next, you held your weight steady with one hand against the edge, while your fingers tussled with the tip of one of your rather prominent ears. From the tilt in your head, your long silky ponytail peaked out from behind the next ear, giving him an idea of what kind of role you played among this cast.

 

Just like at the register, there wasn't even the tiniest hint of a smile to help showcase all that beauty. And just like yesterday, large, displeased, and somewhat judgemental eyes stared him down. Or at least that seemed to be the case this time as well.

 

"What kind of shit did you do to the guy?" It sounded more like a command than a simple question for his captor to answer.

 

"Me?" he raised his palms to his face immediately, sending Taehyung stumbling a foot forward from the motion. "You know I'm always on my best behavior." A corner of his lips tugged upward.

 

"Don't lie." A short woman with a distinct mole on her chin interrupted. "At least be truthful for the sake of our poor hoobae and customers that had to deal with you so far."

 

"It's called teasing." He shooed her comment away.

 

As Taehyung steadied himself on his feet, Chanyeol took cool steps towards your calm figure. The dark-haired male went from him to you, who eyed him as he closed in. Unlike before with him, his arm gently laid across your shoulder. It looked like he was being careful not to let any weight aside from his arm cause you discomfort. But instead of allowing him to leave it there, you shrugged it off and pushed away from the table to fully stand on your own.

 

You tucked a hand under your armpit as you huffed, yet still fiddling with your ear. "You said your name was Taehyung?" You raised a brow. That alone put a nod to his head. "My name's Bumi."

 

 _'Bumi?'_  Just like the name of the shop. What were the chances? But he figured his gawking might have made him look weird, so he decided to actually say something. "Hi," he bowed a nod. On instinctive greeting, he reached out his hand to you, but within the three seconds of not receiving yours to shake, he heard a low chuckle from just ahead. Hearing it too many times in the past, it had to belong to Chanyeol. So to save himself from further awkwardness and embarrassment, his fingers scrunched back into his palm until they were back at his side again.

 

"Um, does anyone want to continue with greetings?" To his left, Taehyung found a reassuring smile being worn by his good friend, Chanwoo. Now that they were standing in the same room, there was no denying how good-looking he had gotten over the past couple of years. He was there when Chanyeol and his company used to joke about how he would stay ugly forever, just because of the 'craters' on his face. But now he was smiling happily with clear features as if that hadn't been a phase in his life at all. In the end, puberty had been really kind to him. When their eyes met, he nodded, sending a message of having his back. It was just enough for a little smile to return, and for Taehyung to recollect his courage.

 

"I'll go." The shorty with the mole waved. "I'm Chaeyoung. Nice to meet you. This person right here," she moved her hand over to the left. "This is Nayeon unnie." She then pointed to her far right. "The one with the mole under his eye," she tapped her face, "is Daniel oppa. Next to him is our own young beanstalk, Wooseokie." Taehyung bowed to each one. "And you already know Chanwoo-ssi, right? There's more of us, but you'll meet them eventually."

 

"It's nice to meet you all. I hope we can get along great." He took a look at all the new faces he was going to be working with from then on. But if it was one thing that he noticed about them all, it's that they were really good-looking people. Good looking people all around him, and then there was him. _'Is that why the owner asked me to take off my glasses, wear contacts, and suggest I get a haircut?'_  He didn't even shy away from recommending him a skincare routine for that pesky acne taking refuge on his nose and cheeks.

 

"Well, that's that," Chanyeol turned his back on him. "I'm gonna go get started on the cakes."

 

"Welcome to the team." Wooseok covered his mouth to yawn, all while holding a lazy fist bump to the air. He stepped forward and gave him a pat on the shoulder before turning his back on him as well. "I'm gonna go pee."

 

"I'm off to take the chairs down," Nayeon said.

 

"I'll get the coffee started," Chaeyoung said. "Chanwoo, come help."

 

"Coming," he said. Before passing his friend, Chanyeol patted Taehyung on the shoulder and followed Chaeyoung out into the dining room.

 

"I'll come help you in a second, Chanyeol hyung." Daniel took a step towards him but he stopped and looked to Taehyung once again. "It's nice to meet you, new guy." He left him with a little smile before walking to the back.

 

And just like that, all his co-workers were gone to start their workday, all except for you. "I heard a gist of your work experience from my uncle," you started. "But there's still some stuff that we do a little differently here, so I'll explain and teach them to you after you've finish changing. My uncle showed you where the men's locker room was, right?" He nodded. "If there's anything that you're confused about, you can ask me, since I've been put in charge of you. Or you can ask Chanwoo, since he's your friend. Whichever you're more comfortable with."

 

"Bumi!" Daniel called. "Where's the menu for the daily specials?"

 

"I'll write it out for you in a sec," you told him. "When you're finished changing, come back to me so I can fill you in on what we do here. After that, you can help Nayeon out with the tables and chairs." You couldn't help but eye his hair. "But before I do, you need something done to your hair. I'll clip it back for now, but make sure you get a hair-cut as soon as possible, understand?"

 

"I will," he nodded.

 

"'Kay, get changed." At his nod, you took your leave and went to the front to get one of the chalkboard stands.  _'Today might be a long day,'_ you thought.

 

**A/N: Hey peeps! I know, it's been like eons since I last posted anything, but here I am with the story I was working on for so darn long: Bumi's Brew. I really hope you guys liked the first chapter because I'm so excited to get this up and FINALLY running!♥♥♥**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: When work doesn't want you to update...  
**

 

"Good work today, everyone!" Wooseok pushed his body halfway out the door and gave a thumbs up to his friends that were out in the front. "We made it through another tough Saturday!" He shook a fist in victory.

 

"Same to you." You raised your clasped hands overhead and trembled out the kinks from throughout the day. "Ugh," you sat your chin down on the broom. "I wanna go home and sleep already."

 

"Me...too," Chaeyoung cupped a hand over her wide yawn.

 

At the corner of your eye, still sweeping his side of the room was the cafe's newest employee. "Taehyung-ssi," he whipped around and hummed in question. When you're finished you can clock out and get changed to leave."

 

"Okay, thanks--"

 

"Bumi." Chanyeol's arms snaked loose around your waist and pressing his hard chest against your small back, pouring some of his weight onto you. You lifted your head away from the broom, but his own chin made landing grounds out of your shoulder. As he shifted his head a little, his cheek smooshed against yours. "I told you we were going for ramen after work, right?" His voice sent vibrations into your cheek. "You coming with?"  Your bodies went rocking from side to side.

 

A curt shove was all you needed to break free from his hold. "I want to see my bed as soon a possible." You started sweeping the last bit of dust and crumbs that were left behind, into the dustpan. "Maybe some other time."

 

The dark-haired male went around to stand face-to-face with the woman whom he naturally pulled smiles out for. "But I'm treating." He swiftly snatched both cleaning supplies right on out of your hand and tucked them away behind his back. "Who doesn't like free ramen?"

 

"You're treating now?" The two of you looked back and found Daniel now walking in with a toothy grin. "Let's hurry up and go then!"

 

Chanyeol huffed out a laugh. "Use your own damn money, man." Then a certain someone caught the corner his eye. When he glanced over, his old 'buddy' was just standing there staring, but as soon as he swapped out his playful face for a serious one, Taehyung's head snapped back down to his shoes. Then he watched his body buffer for a second or two before scurrying away to go dispose of the garbage in his dustpan. "Now," he took a single step closer, just to dive his features closer to yours. "Back to your real answer."

 

You stabbed your index finger in his forehead, shoving him away. "No. Thanks." Playing around like a fool and flinging his body away was all in his plan to make you laugh.

 

"Working those finger muscles lately, right?" He cupped his forehead. But not the tiniest smirk. "Fine," he walked back to you, "be like that then." His fingers pulled at your chin. "I'll just text you when I get inside." Then you suddenly turned your back on him. "Don't you want this back?"

 

You waved your fingers away from him. "Take care of that for me, will ya?"

 

"Sure thing." But his feet and eyes didn't wander until you were well past the swinging door. "It's only a matter of time folks." He made his way behind the counter and dumped the garbage in one of the small trash cans.

 

Daniel looked up from his phone, smirking in amusement. "Isn't that what all the guys say when they're constantly being friend zoned?" He leaned himself against the wall beside the front door.

 

"Your opinion's invalid," he flipped him off. Holding the cleaning supplies still, Chanyeol walked into the kitchen and out the next door to get to the supply closet beside the woman's locker room.

 

When he placed them inside, he heard the door to the men's locker room close. "Oh," he pulled his head back, "Shitface!" Like a deer caught in headlights, Taehyung stood more frozen than a block of ice. "Come're man," He closed the door and walked up to him.

 

 _'What should I do?_ ' The longer he stood in a panic, the less time he had to make a run for it. "I--" he swallowed. "G-good work today." He took a step towards the kitchen door but was blocked off.

 

"Where're you off to in such a hurry, huh?" he raised a brow. "Or maybe you're trying to avoid me altogether?"

 

"No," he shook his head down. "I just want to get home so I can get started on a project."

 

Chanyeol let off and airy scoff. "Project?" He stuffed his hands away in the pockets of his windbreaker and tilted his head to the side to understand. "So you don't have any kind of time to spare to catch up with an old friend?" he cocked a brow. 

 

Taehyung's gaze found his feet next. Old friends didn't make each other's stomach churn with unease and fear.

 

"I bet you're still quite the little A+ student, hm? I'm sure your project can wait a bit, or even until tomorrow. For now, how about you come along with me, and the guys to get some ramen?"

 

"Ramen?" his brows closed in concern. "No thanks, I really--"

 

"Loosen up, man!" Chanyeol slammed his heavy hand down on Taehyung's back, making him cough from the force. "I'm not gonna do anything to ya. I just wanna have a little chat."

 

 _'A chat? What kind of chat?'_  That didn't make Taehyung loosen up in the slightest. If anything, it made his anxiety increase all the more. From what he remembered, a chat with Park Chanyeol was nothing to be relaxed about. It was more like, prepping himself for either humiliation or a beat down.

 

"The hell are you doing?" Both males then turned and found to find you standing there, the zipper of your Adidas jacket zipped up to the neck, and you with a sneer pulling at the corner of your upper lip. Taehyung was supposed to be the victim, but instead, he felt like he was doing something wrong with the way you went back and forth between them.

 

"Nothing," he took his other hands out of his pocket. "I'm just inviting Shit--Taehyung here to get some ramen with us." Then his eyes widened with hope. "Did you change your mind and come to tell me?"

 

"My answer's still 'no'." You then walked right on up to the new recruit and held out an open palm. From your palm to your eyes they looked. "My hairclips," you said. "You weren't thinking of going home with them, were you?"

 

"No," he shook his head and fumbled in a hurry to unfasten them from his bangs. "Here you go." His bangs shaded his vision again as he dropped them in your palm.

 

Down into your purse they went before you could turn to Chanyeol and tell him, "you're in the way."

 

"My bad." He shifted out of the doorway, just to watch you leave him for a second time. His eyes even lingered through the round window until the next door closed back behind you. "anyways," he turned back to his current target, "the convenience store isn't going to be open forever. Let's makes moves."

 

"But--" Taehyung wasn't quick enough to properly refuse him and was still dragged by the neck, out the hallway and to the front door, where Daniel and Wooseok stood.

 

 

"Hot, hot, hot!" Chanyeol and Wooseok carefully but quickly walked out of the store with their own cups of ramen. He kept blowing around his fingers before finally setting it down on the table. "Thanks for keeping watch of our table for us, buddy," he looked over to Taehyung, who was leaned up against the side of the building, rubbing circles into the lenses of his frames with a squint in his eyes.

 

"You sure you don't wanna pull up a chair or get something for yourself?" Daniel asked, before slurping up another set.

 

"No, thank you," he shook his head.

 

"Wait a second," Wooseok was just about to sit down until he noticed that, "we forgot the sausages." He then dashed back off inside, leaving the other three outside.

 

"So, how'd you like your first day with us," Daniel pushed on for conversation, while Chanyeol started typing away at his phone.

 

"Well...it was a lot busier than my old job." he slipped the handles behind his ear.

 

"Despite that, you were still holding your own. Where'd you work before?"

 

"I used to work in a bakery, but I quit because traveling back and forth from school and my house was a lot."

 

"So basically another cafe?" he chuckled.

 

"Um...Yeah," he forced a friendly chuckle out, "you could say that..." He was too nervous to do anything genuine. Afterall, though Daniel seemed nice, he was someone that hung out with Chanyeol.

 

"Shitface!" Speaking of nervous, Chanyeol was right on time,  jumping not only him but Daniel out of their skin from the sudden shout. "We've got some super pretty women in our staff, don't we?"

 

Taehyung was caught off guard by the sudden question. "I guess so, yeah."

 

"You guess?" His chuckle came out in a huff. "Come on, you're a man. Give me a proper answer from your balls."

 

He cleared his throat and responded in a deeper voice. "Yes." But the crack in it made the two laugh. If he had the option, he wouldn't be talking at all. He didn't even want to be there in the first place. All he wanted to do was catch the bus and get himself home.

 

He twisted his upper half behind to observe his reaction when he asked, "who's the prettiest?"

 

Wooseok then came back out of the store with the 3 sausages. "What're you guys talking about?" He handed one each to others.

 

"Taehyung was just about to tell us which one of the girls he thought was the prettiest," Daniel said.

 

"Oho," Wooseok grinned like a little boy back in his primary school days. "Who is it?"

 

"They're all pretty, so I don't think I can choose."

 

"It's simple though. Just pick one," Chanyeol took a moment to slurp up 2 mouthfuls. "Nayeon noona, Chaeyoungie, or Bumi. Answer truthfully."

 

All eyes were all on Taehyung. They were really anticipating his answer, Chanyeol especially. Honestly, he didn't have to think much for his answer at all. There was most definitely a girl that stood out more than the other two. Despite the reserved, yet snippy attitude, robust gaze, her beauty stood higher than all that combined. But was it really okay to be honest? If he were to see into one route in which he said this name, he bet everything all on a getting a punch to the gut. But he had to answer, otherwise, he wouldn't be allowed to go home. "Chaeyoung.-ssi?" Is what his mouth answered.

 

"The midget?" The guys eyed each other before a bunch of cheeky grins spread across their faces. "Then should I convince give you her to give her number to you, if you're interested?"

 

"No way," Taehyung shook his head. "I don't like her. I just said she was the prettiest."

 

"Hey," the smile wiped right off his face. "Don't be stupid. No one's prettier than my Bumi."

 

"Bumi doesn't belong to you," Daniel threw in his two cents. "She's not interested and she's never gonna be."

 

Chanyeol scoffed big time. "You don't know what kind of things we do when you guys aren't around." He leaned back in to get another mouthful of noodles.

 

"We might only see each other at work," Wooseok pointed his chopsticks at him. "But even Hoseok hyung knows you give noona headaches." He giggled too much.

 

He had to roll his eyes that time. "I don't give her headaches."

 

"Sure you don't," Daniel took a bite of his sausage. "Just be grateful she hasn't cut you out of her life for being a nuisance."

 

"He'll never go farther than that deadly zone," Wooseok shook his head. "Especially not with his Instagram page looking like a fanpage." The hand Daniel slammed on the table to signal nearly choking, had Wooseok's laugh bubbling over.

 

"Laugh all you want," he nodded. "You'll see soon enough." Then he remembered a question that just about everyone wanted the answer to. "I've been meaning to ask," he looked back up at the quiet male. "Why in the hell are you working at our cafe?" Taehyung's heart fell several stories at the question. "I mean," he took up another slurp and chewed some, "I get that you need to put some cash in your pocket, but you just don't fit in."

 

He couldn't look at Chanyeol anymore, so his eyes just found the ground again.

 

"I'm pretty sure you got tipped off, but the owner only hires good-looking people. Handsome men, beautiful women..." Taehyung's brows furrowed at the pang in his heart. "You know why? Because we pull in tons of customers." He then took a bite of his sausage and stuck it back inside his bowl. "At first, I wondered the same thing for Chanwoo, but he managed to pull himself together about a year ago. He's still a pussy though," he shrugged. "For you..." he tilted his head in a hiss. "I don't know what kind of tear-jerking tale you told him to get this job, but it must've been a good one, huh?" He chucked all on his own. "I just hope your work'll be enough to make up for the rest of you."

 

"Leave the guy alone," Daniel kicked his shin. "Don't listen to him. Chanyeol hyung just likes to take his jokes too far."

 

That was something Taehyung knew all too well. He used to be Chanyeol's favorite lackey, right along with Chanwoo. The two fugly's in a pod he used to call them; him along with his group of buddies.

 

"He knows all of that already, don't you, Shitface?" He had no choice but to nod along.

 

Then Taehyung's pocket started to light up and vibrate in his pocket. He quickly reached into his phone and checked to see his mother was calling him. He slid the green button over and answered. "Hello...? Ah, yeah I'm not finished, yet...When?" He glanced over to Chanyeol and his stare sent his eyes the other way. "I don't know. Mm. See you later. Love you, too."

 

"Was that your mom?" Chanyeol raised a brow. "She must be missing her darling son. It's fine, you can go home. Can't let your mom worry, can you? Thanks for coming out, buddy. See you at work."

 

"See you, hyung," Wooseok took his hand out his pocket to wave to him.

 

"See you at work, Taehyung-ssi," Daniel waved as well.

 

There were brief smiles on their faces, but the one from Chanyeol when he waved Taehyung goodbye, didn't comfort him in the least.


	3. Chapter 3

"Bumi," the brunette took the stick of nicotine from her lips and clouded the air around her with a single blow. "What's with you and Chanyeol?"

 

You inhaled your own cigarette and took a second before exhaling it from out your nose. "Nothing's up with us," you said. "Chanyeol's my friend, just like you and our other friends."

 

"Except we don't cling to you like a candy wrapper. It's annoying to watch, but even now he still treats you like you're the only girl on campus."

 

You snickered. "Reminds me how you never refuse that one guy. What's his name? Jaeb--"

 

"We're talking about you," Chaeyoung shouted. "Not me!" She would've knocked you over from you squat if you hadn't braced your hand on the ground as quick as you did. But that didn't stop the giggles from spilling.

 

After your classes were done with, you met Chaeyoung over on her side of campus for that once in a while puff on the side of the building. Other students were either there are slowly gathered on the field of grass and trees ahead to sit and either do some solo studying or chat among themselves.

 

"So all those times you guys spent alone together, you're telling me you haven't done anything at all?" She leaned over with both her face and finger close to your nose. "Not even one little kiss?" 

 

You blew your next cloud of smoke in her face, getting her to flee from the attack. "Mmm..." You tucked your elbow back to sit on your knee and dropped your head down on the backside of your wrist. "Let me see," the cigarette ashes fell down in between your legs after a couple taps.

 

"Come on," she gave you a light kick, "you have to remember something."

 

"Okay, okay," your hand dropped back over your knee. "I can't lie to you of all people." You peaked from your peripheral view to witness her reaction when you told her, "there might've been some kissing here and there on separate occasions." 

 

Chaeyoung's eyes grew three sizes big in that moment of her gasped. "Really?!"

 

"And we probably had sex." Her jaw dropped. "Once or twice." Your confessions nearly knocked the rest of the wind out her chest.

 

"You bad, bad girl!" She grabbed onto your shoulder and started shaking you almost until the waves in your hair were a mess. "You actually kept this all to yourself without thinking to tell me and Nayeon unnie? Unforgivable!" But then she stopped. "Hold on," and lowered her voice, despite you two being the only ones around in the area. She just had to ask, "does that mean you two are secretly dating?"

 

"Gosh, no."

 

"I see. Well then," she blinked. "How's the sex?"

 

You couldn't help but huff out a laugh at the question. "Why?"

 

Chaeyoung turned her head, looking at you as if you should know the obvious. "I just want to make sure you're getting involved with good, strong, healthy dick," Is it wrong of me to worry?"

 

"No, no," you stuck the cancerous stick in our mouth to pat her thigh. You then took a second to inhale and plucked it from your mouth when you were ready to blow. "Thank you for worrying, my sweet."

 

"So..." She anticipated for you to finish.

 

"So...I'm not telling." Of course, that earned you some tickles. At first, you tried bottling up the giggles, but after being hit on your neck, all the way down to your sides, you ended up falling over in cackles. "I give!" You slapped the ground a few times over.

 

"How'd you even let him into your pants?" She pulled back up and let her back fall against the wall.

 

"Do you remember that day when it was really freezing, like a month ago." She hummed. "And when we were leaving work, I said I was ready to take a nice hot shower and jump in bed?" She took a second to jog her memory, but she got a hum out. "And Chanyeol asked to come over to get his guitar?" She nodded, this time a grin pulling at her lips.

 

"Did you guys fuck in the shower?" She pulled the cigarette back to her lips.

 

"Patience," you said and she rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I let him, knowing he wasn't going to leave right away, so we ended up talking on my bed after eating some snacks. Then I asked him to play me something, but he told me that he wasn't in the mood. When I ask him why, he tells me he's in the mood to finger something else."

 

"That corny son of a--" She stopped. "Hold on on a sec...Was anyone home?" She asked as if she was trying to get her child to tell her exactly what she had done.

 

You turned your head into your wrist as quick as that grin flicked on. "I promise we were being really quiet." You knew you shouldn't be smiling over the memory of what went on, but couldn't help it. "My mom was in her room sleeping."

 

"You two were bold enough to fuck with your mom in the house?" She brought her shouts down to whisper levels.

 

"I was gonna say no...but then I thought how stupid I'd be to pass up on the opportunity." The excitement washed up and down your body just from thinking about it all over again. "Would you?" She stayed silent and ended up sighing. "Of course not. And it's not like we were gonna go back out just to drive to a motel."

 

"I'm just saying that it was risky is all. What if you couldn't control your voice?" She stabbed the stick of nicotine near your face. "You could've been caught and probably thrown out. Was his car really not an option?"

 

You closed your eyes, took in a strong inhale, and blew toxic clouds into the air. "Do I look like someone that deserves to have their first time in a car?" Your eyes became lidded. That one went in good. "All we had to do was keep our voices low."

 

Chaeyoung reached below and made you whine in pain, before swatted hits at her for yanking the meat of your cheeks as hard as she did. "Listen to me when I'm scolding you, understand?" She flipped her long locks hair back behind her shoulder.

 

"If it makes you feel any better...it hurt like hell when he popped it." Her snorting chortles amused you just as much. "Seriously though," you put a hand down to your crotch, "I felt like I was dying. I almost pissed myself as soon as he started. As hard as she was laughing, you started bubbling over with laughter yourself. "When he tried going inside I grabbed my pillow and started making the weirdest faces." 

 

"Show me, show me!" she begged.

 

You glanced over to the grass of people and a couple yards away. "Okay." You then hid the side of your face with your hand and twisted slightly towards her just for her to see what kind of pain-driven faces you made on that day.

 

As soon as you got to the second one, her knees gave out to the floor, so she held onto one side of her tensing belly as the laughter continued spilling out of her. By this time, you had fallen to your thigh, bubbling over with a hung head. Things like laughing at each other's pain was a normal thing for either of you to save to the 'good times' folder in your head.

 

"Bumi-ah! Chaeyoung-ah!" Trying to contain the physical joy, you raised your head at the owner of the voice who called your names. Of course, it belonged to the same guy you were talking about. "I was hoping you two'd be here," he slowed down his steps. "What's so funny?" he asked.

 

One peak to each other and your heads hung low to hide the next round of giggles. "Nothing."

 

Taking your word for it, Chanyeol swiped your cigarette right from your fingers and took a squat down right in front of you. "I need a smoke after that last class." He wasted no time and took his first long inhale. "Fuck..." he breathed it out in a sigh.

 

You wacked the smoke away from hitting your face any further and pushed your back up against the brick wall. Then your legs went sprawled out on either side of him. "Why?" The smile from seconds ago was finally on its way out. It was like you forgot how to look amused.

 

He took a second to inhale and exhale away from your face. "This is our second time working on our group assignment and that lazy cunt of a sunbae didn't do jack shit. He had three days. Three damn days!" He took another puff. "I'm really thinking about kicking his ass out our group at this point if he doesn't pull himself together." 

 

"Well don't pop a vein trying to yell at us about it," Chaeyoung said, taking a puff of her own.

 

"Bumi," he whined. "Give me a boost," Chanyeol put the cigarette back in his mouth and stretched his arms out to you. 

 

"You already have your boost," you pointed to the thing in his hand.

 

He took it out again. "Just let me hold you for a bit." He waddled himself over to left of you, turned and sat down with his legs spread out just like yours, with his back against the wall. "Have a seat," he patted his thigh.

 

From his open lap, back to his cheeky grin, you turned your head back to Chaeyoung. "People are gonna get the wrong idea." It was just too risky.

 

"Ha." Chanyeol's hand went back to his mouth so he could huff and puff some more. "You're always so damn stubborn when I'm involved." But then he smirked in thought. "Actually, that's a lie. I'm pretty sure there was the one time where you beg--" Your hand went flying out to his hard chest, fast enough that he would choke on those next few words. But that didn't stop the giggles from getting out.

 

"Keep your mouth closed," you snatched the cigarette back and put it out beside your thigh.

 

"I'm just teasing," his voice didn't have to sound like honey though.

 

The smoke passed through Chaeyoung's lips before muttering, "he never knows when to give up," she muttered.

 

"What was that, munchkin?" He looked up at her.

 

"I said!" She took a deep breath, fluttering lashes and all. "When's Bumi gonna just give up?"

 

Chanyeol shook his head as a smirk spread. "Was your day at least a bit less sucky than mine though?" He dropped his gaze to have a good look at those plump rouge-stained lips. "How was your boring Art History lecture?" he raised a brow.

 

The corners of your lips tugged further downward. "It's not boring."

 

"Yeah, it is...But since it's something you like, I won't tease you too much," he plucked at your chin, but got his hand slapped away.

 

 _'You don't even really care...'_  If it was about art, you could've talked about your interests for hours; but with your usual circle of friends, you didn't have the luxury. And after school clubs? There wasn't any time for them. Not with work and studies on your belt.

 

"Lemme ask you another question for the day. Why won't you be my girlfriend already, huh?"

 

"She doesn't like you," Chaeyoung threw in her two cents but was refunded with a bird instead.

 

Your eyes wandered away to one of the large trees shading a group of students. "I'm not in the mood to be in a relationship right now, that's all. Try coming back in the next century."

 

He couldn't help but scoff at the shit of an excuse you decided to feed him. "Next century my ass!" He got on one knee tucked his arms underneath you and stood up as quickly as he could.

 

Taking flight was nowhere apart of your plans for the day. "Chanyeol!" Your grip around his neck tightened and your forehead tucked away into your elbow. "Put me down!" You forced tension into your body, hoping not to feel how fast he was going. But alas, it was too much.

 

When the whirls finally came to a halt, he faced the group of students and shouted, "I've got an announcement to make, so everyone listens up! Ahn Bumi and I are finally da--Ow!" His grip almost went bye-bye given the huge sting radiating on his back. Thanks to him, your butt didn't have to feel the harsh impact of the concrete. "I almost dropped you!" 

 

You raised your spinning head and squinted in on his face so everything else around you didn't spin so damn much. "You shouldn't have picked me up in the first place," you protested. Seeing you like that, his snickers were pretty valid.

 

 

Later on, after you and your friends finished hanging around campus, he was the one driving your girls home safe. But when he got to your house, he was ready to leave Chaeyoung in the car for about an hour, just to follow you inside the house and hang around you some more. But tired enough as you were, you thanked him, waved Chaeyoung a later, and went inside the building

 

"Dad, I'm back!" you called as you slipped off your shoes. The delicious aroma that hit your nose almost immediately, tipped you off as to where he could've been. "Dad," you walked down the short hall and peaked your head around the corner and into the kitchen. "That smells good."

 

"My little Bumi is home already?" he turned back and found just your head peaking past the wall. "No work with your uncle today?"

 

"No, not today." You made sure to keep your distance. If it was one thing your parents didn't like you doing it was smoking. "You're cooking dinner, huh?" you gave half a smile. "I'm looking forward to it." He then chuckled. "When's it gonna be ready?"

 

"In the next hour or so."

 

"Call me when it's finished. I'll be in my room coloring until then." And up to your room, you went. You closed your door behind you, dropped your bag on the floor on your way to the closet, and slid open the door to see what kind of clothes you body temperature felt like condoning. "Goodbye boob squeezer," you reached under your shirt and unhooked it. "Hello, air." You pulled out your arms from the straps and then the rest of it from under our shirt.

 

You tugged the grey oversized T-shirt off its hanger and flung it over your shoulder. "Okay." Next it was over to your desk, where you picked up your eye-contacts case, and then to your bed to get your towel, before walking back out of your room to get across the hall and to use the toilet.

 

Once you flushed, you washed your hands and stood in front of the sink with your finger carefully picking your contacts off and then putting back into their respective case. You then turned on the shower and hung both your shirt and towel on the rack so you could step out of your clothes and into the steaming shower.

 

Soon after, you were back in your room drying your hair and closing your desk's bottom drawer back with your foot. Into your bed you plopped with your adult coloring book and color pencils. 

 

Finally, you were back at home, indulging yourself in what relaxed you the most: art. Coloring, sketching, looking at beautiful pieces of art, via the internet. They were all ways to cut down your stress from work and school. As soon as you dropped the yellow color pencil to trade for the orange, the chorus to Starry Night blared through the peaceful silence.

 

"This kid..." You already knew it was him before you looked up and grabbed it. Did you want to answer? No. But even if you hadn't he'd just call back a million times over until you did. While it rang, you hopped back over to your desk and snatched up the pastel pink glasses case.

 

By the time you took off your first pair of glasses and set them back on your desk, the call ended. But relentless as you knew he was, he called on. You opened the pretty case and plucked out your more stylish pair of specs to slip on. Then you sat back in bed to pick up his call at last.

 

"You just saw me 45 minutes ago, Park Chanyeol. What could you've possibly forgotten to tell me during that time?"

 

"That you're the most gorgeous creature on the face of this planet."


	4. Chapter 4

"So when he tried kissing me, I kicked him in the balls and left him on the street."

 

You pulled the white scrunchie out from your silky ponytail. "All because he bailed on your date?"

 

"You wouldn't do the same?" Naeyeon asked.

 

"Hm..." You collected the same section and smoothed it up high on your head. "You're right. Depends on who it is." You wrapped and pulled, before grabbing that same tail of hair to circle around what you started. "If it were someone like Daniel," you tucked the ends under the scrunchie, "then I'd just curse him out." Two extra wraps, an extra pull, and finally a release. 

 

"And if it were Chanyeol?"

 

"Why bring him up?" Your hands fell back to your sides.

 

"Well," Nayeon started grinning as if she knew something. "They've got 2 different personalities. And the way I see it," she shrugged, "he seems more like your type."

 

"Chanyeol isn't my type," you immediately denied. "And who said anything about liking him? We're just friends."

 

"Right, and I forgot to take my plan-B last week." You shook your head at her, pushing the locker room door open. "You two are like a peanut butter & jelly sandwich," she followed after you down the hall. If you're not together, it just doesn't work. But if you take too long to finally start dating him, I'm gonna have to snatch him from you."

 

You elbowed a chuckle out of her. "You're just interested in his face."

 

When you entered the kitchen with Nayeon, Chanyeol and Wooseok both stood at their stations,  chatting with each other. The older one was at the table making some cake from scratch, while the younger layered, iced, and decorated his cooled pieces.

 

"Ooh, those look really good," Nayeon got their heads to turn in her direction.

 

"Bumi," just saying your name alone blossomed a smile right on his lips. "Come're and taste this for me." When you stood at his side, Chanyeol passed the bowl of chocolate batter your way to let you get a swipe from the rim. "How is it?" His smile was hopeful.

 

"I'm not too sure." You went to swipe your finger once more, but got the bowl snatched away before you could.

 

"Uh-uh. Good to know you think it's delicious, but this is for the customers. I'll save you a piece of the actual thing before the day's done. He pulled at your cheek. "Alright?" But when he saw the pout in your lips and the knit in your brow, he lost his stance. A stance that wasn't even hard to begin with. So Chanyeol took the spatula out and passed it over. "Here." He took a step over and dug around in one of the top drawers for another.

 

"Stop spoiling that greedy girl," Nayeon said.

 

You turned to Nayeon with the spatula stuffed in your hole. "You should be happy," you sucked a corner of the spatula. "I'm doing this so you and Wooseokie don't gain any weight." Oh, the excuses.

 

"I've got somethin' to tell you," Chanyeol kept his voice low, sticking the new spatula in the bowl of batter.

 

You looked over your shoulder. "What now?" Your body followed the motion until you were facing him again; but then you flipped back around, just for your forearms to hold your weight against the countertop beside him.

 

The black-haired male leaned in just enough for his breath to tickle your cartilage. "My folks aren't gonna be home when we get off tomorrow." His tone was low, deep. Not too good for your condition. "I'll have the place to myself for about 4 hours, so how about we take a drive over there and I cook you dinner?"

 

Already finished with the spatula, ou reached past him to toss it in the sink. "Why're inviting me over when your parents aren't home?" You raised a brow. "Hm?"

 

He chuckled. "You know what I want." His eyes took in your lips, chest, waist, legs. It was just the usual white long sleeved button-up with a black pencil skirt and a cute little gold ribbon tied around your collar, yet it still managed work magic.

 

"What're you two whispering about?" Nayeon's voice stood out. "Speak up so us outsiders can hear." Her finger waved back and forth between her and their maknae.

 

"Nothing that concerns you," he stuck out his tongue, then glanced your way again.

 

"I'm not going over to your house to screw you, but if you just want to talk like normal people, then I don't see the problem." You then glanced down to the bowl. "There definitely won't be a problem if there's cake."

 

"Normal people screw around too." His murmured comment ended with him holding on to a sore arm. "Not laughing could've worked just as well." He took a step back from your sharp elbow, still rubbing his arm.

 

"We're just hanging out. Understand?" The sneaky little smile on his lips made the tip of your tongue click with the roof of your mouth. "I'm serious here."

 

"I hear you," he raised his hands in relent. "Just hanging out."

 

"Good morning."

 

The extra voice that walked into the room distracted your attention away from Chanyeol. It was the new guy, Taehyung; but he was looking a bit off.  _'Something about him looks different today...'_  you thought. 

 

"Morning," Wooseok returned the greeting.

 

Then you saw it. "You cut your hair," you said, gaining their attention.

 

"Oh," Taehyung put a hand to his head. "Yeah. I hope it's acceptable now."

 

From where you were posted up, your eyes studied him. "It's good," you said. "Now you don't look as shabby anymore and we can work comfortably."

 

Nayeon scurried over to your side. "If he was gonna change his hair, he should've at least changed those ugly glasses, too." You hummed in agreeance. "Do people seriously still make those things for people to wear? It looks like he took two glass cups, shaved off the bottom and fit frames around it. " As soon as you started to laugh, Nayeon held onto you and turned her head away to do the same.

 

But it was the little giggles from across the room that glued Taehyug's lips tightly shut, while inferiority glued his feet to the shined tile floor.  _'Do I look bad after all?'_  He picked his feet off the floor and went walking out of the room as fast as his legs could carry him.

 

"Unnie," you playfully shoved her away. "He doesn't look that bad," you whispered.

 

She cupped her hands around your ear and said, "watch this." She then backed away. "He doesn't look bad, but I bet if he fixed himself up some more, and his face cleared up, he'd look pretty hot."

 

Chanyeol's face twisted. "'Hot'?" he scoffed,  bringing your eyes to him. "Be serious."

 

She looked to him with a quirked brow and a smirk. "I think Chanyeol may have some serious competition now. Don't you think, Bumi?" 

 

"I get what you mean," you nodded. Seeing the drop in Chanyeol's face, it took every piece of strength inside of you not to crack even the slightest smile. How could he be this gullible? But then you remembered, it was you in the equation.

 

"Don't joke around like that," he warned her. But then he glanced to you and had to ask, "You're joking, right?"

 

"What for?" You creased your brows, acting like you couldn't understand what he meant. "If he gets handsome, he'll have tons of girls at his feet. That means the cafe gets more money."

 

"Look," Nayeon started up again. "You're getting upset, so you must see it too."

 

If dictionaries usually placed faces beside words, his would be right beside the word: irritated. "If you keep frowning like that," you poked his forehead, "you're gonna get lines in your forehead." 

 

Chanyeol wasn't going to, but still pulled a fake smile to save face. when both your backs were on him, his teeth sunk into and started grinding at his bottom lip; his expression turning sour once more.  _'Shitface, hot?'_  Not even if pigs could fly.

 

"Wooseokie," he looked over to the door. "Nayeon and I are gonna get started on the tables and chairs. When Taehyung-ssi comes back out, tell him to go in the supply closet and get some extra napkins and straws for the counter."

 

"'Kay." Just as they left, the door closed back, he had to glance over to his hyung and ask, "hyung, you okay? You know they were just playing around, right?" But before he could get an answer, Taehyung entered the kitchen. 

 

"Hyung," he called to him. "Bumi noona said you should clock in and go back to gather some napkins and straws to refill the counter. He was just walking to the dining room to do just that, but why did Wooseok have a bad feeling?"

 

"Hey, Shitface!" Chanyeol stopped him in his tracks and caught Wooseok's attention at the same time. "Come're." He grabbed a bottle of water from the other side of the counter and unscrewed the cap before with his back turned.

 

Unease was already scratching at his chest, but Taehyung stopped what he was doing, walked over to him, and stood before him, just like he used to during high school, Head held low and hands rubbing against his forearm, he answered "yes?"

 

"Give this to Bumi." He stretched the opened bottle out for him to take.

 

He eyes fell to the capless bottle, and couldn't help but ask. "The cap is missing though..." Just as he reached out for it, a big wave of water shot out and onto his face, blinding him for next few passing seconds.

 

All three males were at a standstill before Wooseok broke the silence with a huff. "I just finished mopping not too long ago..." He murmured, as he left for the supply closet.

 

Taehyung took off his glasses and immediately started wiping at his drenched face.  _'What did I do?'_  he thought to himself.  _'My shirt...'_   He looked down to find it soaked all across the chest area. He tried wiping it but that only help a little. The cafe was set to open in the next thirty minutes, so there was no way it would fully dry before then.

 

"My bad." He looked back at him. "I was looking for something to entertain me for a bit."

 

Every word hadn't gone unheard, yet his mind was still elsewhere; focusing on the heaviness sitting on his shoulder and pulling at his face. Especially centering itself around the melancholy fog making a home out of his chest.

 

Despite it all, Chanyeol had a grin running across his face. "Let's get along like the old day's." He clapped a hand down on his shoulder. "'kay?"

 

 _'I shouldn't have come here.'_  He had finally escaped Chanyeol and his company, but now he was right back in the Devil's lair. Was the pay really worth going through this kind of harassment again? Did he even have the skin to stick around and deal with it?


	5. Chapter 5

For the rest of the week, day after day, Chanyeol found some kind of way to mess with Taehyung. From the early morning, when he was forced to eat a hot piece of candy:

 

"Hey, Shitface!" he called, just before he walked to the front. "Dare or dare?"

 

Taehyung blinked. "Dare or--"

 

"Dare it is!" He slipped out a piece of candy from his pocket and stuck his open palm out to him. "I dare you to hold this in your mouth for two whole minutes."

 

Taehyung went from his devious grin,  down to his hand.  _'Candy?'_  he thought, looking back at him. This couldn't be good. "It's not hot...right...?"

 

"So what if it is?" he walked over to him. "I'm still daring you to hold it in your mouth. That's the fun of it all. Here," he snatched his hand from his side, palm up, and dropped the secret sweet in it.

 

Taehyung just frowned down at it. Defying Park Chanyeol was not an option in the least, so when his hand dropped away, he took a nervous hand to his lips and ate it. Seconds had only gone by since the sweet tumbled around with his tongue and already his taste buds were on fire. He slowly pushed the candy to the side of his cheek, but the tip of his tongue felt like it was set ablaze with a torch.

 

When he met his eyes with Chanyeol, he had his arms crossed, enjoying his tortured expression. Taehyung cupped his mouth and squeezed his eyes shut to try and endure.

 

"Come on, don't quit now," he shook fists of encouragement.

 

Taehyung shook his head.  _'I can't anymore!'_   Wasting not a second more, Taehyung dashed by the other side of the table.  _'I need to wash my mouth!'_. He shoved the door out to the hallway, but in the process, a big thump came from behind it. Big enough for Chanyeol to turn in question.

 

His eyes bulged from his sockets. It was clear that he had hit someone, so he pushed the brown door open a lot slower than before. He peaked his head around the corner, getting ready to apologize to whomever it was he unintentionally hit dead-on, but when he saw who it was, his head went blank.

 

"Mother fucker..."

 

"Bumi-ssi..." His blood ran so cold that even the fire on his tongue ran away. "Sorry," he gulped. Hand still cupped over your face, you were in too much of awe over getting hit. "I didn't--" But the daggers that pointed at him, shoved the words back down his throat.

 

 _'You dumbass,'_  he cursed himself. It's not like he wanted to hit anyone in the first place, but if he had to pick one on accident, you wouldn't even be on the list. "Sorry," he bowed deeply. "I'm really sorry," But as he continued to bow, he shuffled his way around you, holding his hand near his mouth and his free hand on his stomach. That chill was temporary after all, and his mind was back on soothing his mouth. Still, escaping the killer snarl that wanted to tear apart him limb from limb and feed them to the garbage disposal, was not easy. "Sorry again!" And then he took off to the employee's bathroom.

 

Peeved more than ever, you shoved the door and marched into the kitchen, where Chanyeol waited.

 

"That was you out there?" He cupped a hand over his mouth to hide his offensive grin. "Are you okay?" When your scowl found him next, he wiped his hand down his face like he was wiping away the grin the same time.  
  


"Fuck you." Because it was clear he was still smiling through those folded lips of his.  
  


Like he was speaking to an upset child, he asked, "did you get hurt?" He walked to you and stood at far enough distance, where he didn't have to worry about his collar getting snagged up by a fresh manicure. "We're alone. You want a kiss for the pain?"  
  


"Suck ass."  
  
  
  


In the middle of a random afternoon, Taehyung went around smelling like onions all day long.  
  


"What the fuck is that smell," as you stepped into the dining room, your nostrils shriveled at the disgusting odor. When you glanced to your left, standing there trying to rub the skin off his hands, head hung low, was your new co-worker. You took a few steps closer to him to get a whiff, but immediately took them back.  
  


You cupped your nose. "Hey, did you wash properly this morning?"  
  
  


"I--I did! It's just--"  
  


"I don't think you did," you shook your head. "So make sure you scrub a little harder next time. Understand?"  
  


Shame sat heavy on his innocent shoulders. He felt bad, rather humiliated for causing a stench that didn't even belong to him. Instead of getting along with his attractive co-workers, he was only further proving his role as the loser.  
  


"It's not really my concern, but how do you expect to get yourself to collect tips if the customers won't even want to be near you? Huh?"  
  


He swallowed, his eyes blinking away to the ground.  
  


"Don't leave the registers today, or else you'll stink up the cafe."  
  


"Yes," he was barely audible as he bowed. "Sorry..." When he saw you moving towards him to pass by, he shifted closer to the counter just so he wouldn't have to brush up against his smelly clothes. He had heard you grumbling complaints past him, cursing under breath in irritation.  
  


But he knew Chanyeol had snuck up behind him and sprayed something awful onto his clothes. Now he had to stand at the register for an entire shift while embarrassment chewed him apart piece by piece.  
  
  
  


Then there was an evening, just before he was about to make his exit, when both Chaeyoung and Nayeon came up to give him a piece of their minds.

 

"Hold it right there!" Chaeyoung shouted.

 

When Taehyung reversed those steps, he turned back, following close behind, but storming towards him still, was both her and Nayeon. Neither of them looked pleased, to say the least, and it didn't make Taehyung feel good.

 

"Did you write this shit?" In the shorter woman's fingers was a piece of paper. She shoved it up real close to his face, almost forcing him to cross eyes to read it. He didn't even need to skim through it to tell her, "no." He pushed up his glasses and shook his head. "it wasn't me."

 

"Don't fucking lie!" As her back up, Nayeon stepped out from behind her at began snapping away at him just the same. "I can tell whose handwriting belongs to who in here, and out of everyone here, your handwriting is the only one who I can't recognize."

 

"What's all the shouting about?" Chanyeol stood at the doorway of the kitchen, arms folded and face serious.

 

Chaeyoung balled up the piece of paper and pelted it directly at his face, watching it bounce off his glasses and fall beside his no brand shoes. "This creep just left a sick love letter in my locker, and now he's playing dumb like he didn't write it at all."

 

"I didn't!" he denied once more, but the hard stare dialed back his tone some. "I'm not that kind of person." He was back and forth between two pairs of vicious eyes, a pair of entertained ones, and then two extra curious pairs peeping out from inside the kitchen. "Please believe me."

 

"Come on, don't lie, man." Chanyeol took slow steps towards the counter. "Did you already forget about telling me, Wooseok, and Daniel about how pretty you thought Chaeyoungie was on our first night?" Taehyung's wide eyes followed him to the counter as his elbows fell to prop up his cheeks. "I think that's enough proof right there."

 

"Oh my gosh," Chaeyoung's fingers mowed through and scrunched up her bangs.

 

"I--" he looked back to the girls. "Chaeyoung-ssi, Nayeon-ssi, please believe me." But right after his plea, came a fresh sting to stain his cheek red for the next couple of minutes.

 

"From now on, stay the hell away from me!" And with the swing of her hair, Chaeyoung turned her back on him and marched off toward the locker room again. "Fucking shit-faced weirdo..."  
  
  


"If you want to keep this job," Nayeon pointed her freshly manicured nails at him, "much less not go to jail, I suggest you stay far away from all of us girls here," she warned. "Be super grateful if I don't report you to the owner." That all said and done, she took off behind her friend.

 

Once they were gone, Chanyeol was the only one left in the room with Taehyung. His head went from side to side, tutting and shaking in disappointment. "You can't go around leaving notes in our girls' lockers like that. You'll scare 'em. If you like either of 'em, then tell me. That way, at least they know you mean no harm."

 

Taehyung stared at Chanyeol in awe. It was him. It would've had to have been him that set him up like that. Feeling enough like shit, he quickly turned his back on him and hurried through the front door. 

 

 _'What did I do?' Why is he coming after me still?'_  Even though they were adults now. But what silly questions they were to ask. Chanyeol never needed a reason to mess with him before, so he definitely didn't need one now. Even so, they were college students now adults; yet things were still the same as how they were high school.

 

Taehyung stepped quickly towards the bus stop.  _'Nothing's changed!'_  Except for the fact that his co-workers were gonna know him as the creepy guy who has a thing for Chaeyoung.  
  
  
  


"Mom, I'm back." He dragged his feet through his house, into the living room, and peered over the couch to find her laying on her side, hand tucked under her chin, mesmerized by the drama playing out on their flat screen.  
  


"Mm," she hummed. "Welcome back. How was work today?"  
  


"Fine." If fine stood for shitty, then work was fine all week long. "What did you make for dinner?"  
  


"Something simple," she said. "I finished it not too long ago, so it's still hot."  
  


"'kay," was all he said before trudging through the past through kitchen to get to his room.  
  


"Oppa, you're home." Peeking through his door was his dear little sister. "Should I run the shower for you?"  
  


"Thanks, Hyun-joo," he pulled a brief smile for her. When his door closed back, the smile vanished. All he wanted to do was get himself a hot shower, stuff his face and fiddle with his camera a bit before bed.  
  


Once he finished washing up and filling his belly, Taehyung entered his room and went to his closet to retrieve his camera bag. He brushed away his hanging clothes out of the way and squatted to get to his camera bag. "I haven't been able to take any pictures for a bit," he pulled out the camera and started turning it over. "Too bad I'm swamped with homework for the entire weekend." But then he thought, "Maybe I'll take a walk around town and see what I can get after work on Tuesday." Something to relieve him of the awful first week.   
  


Taehyung powered it on and started going through the latest pictures he had captured. The last time he touched his camera was almost a month ago. Schoolwork and his new job had kept him away from it for too long, and now with Chanyeol around to make his life a living hell again, he needed time to unwind with his first love.  
  


"Thirty percent?" He then stood and made his way to his desk, pulling his chair out and took a seat. He clicked through a photo more and stopped at the one that had city lights reflecting off the water.  _'That was a good night,'_  the corner of his lip lifted as he remembered the warm night. But the smile didn't stay for too long.  
  


"How am I gonna sneak this past Chanyeol?" he nibbled on his bottom lips. There was no probability in it, he was definitely going to find a way to destroy his precious camera if he saw and got his hands on it. "I'll have to ask the boss if I can keep it in his room until the end of the day."


	6. Chapter 6

Monday night both you and Chanyeol sat in front of your building, in his car, after returning from the movie theaters and a drive around town. A simple little date that he begged you to go on after classes had finished up.

 

"Hey, don't you think the new guy's pretty damn strange?" you asked, as you stared over at all the cars and trucks passing by on the opposite road. "Strange isn't even the word to describe him. More like..." you squinted, "a nuisance."

 

"Shitface?" Chanyeol's arms swung behind the head of your seat, tilting his head towards you. "He's always been that way since high school. That's why he and Chanwoo are still close friends, duh."

 

"He seemed okay at first, but now he's just being weird. First, he runs through the place, almost knocking me down. Then there was the time he showed up to work smelling damn awful." The more you went on, the further Chanyeol's grin spread. But at this point, just remembering how he smelled made you shiver. "And then Chaeyoung told me about that creepy love letter he left her. If it weren't for his skills, he'd be useless there."

 

"Skills?" Chanyeol's chest jumped from his chuckles. "What skills?"

 

 "You might not realize it because you're stuck in the kitchen most of the time, but his weirdness aside, he's actually a pretty decent worker."  

 

"First you talk crap about him, now you're dishing out compliments? Bunbun, make up your mind here." Chanyeol unhooked his arm and leaned in closer to you. "Whoa," he tilted his head to the other side, squinting to see if it was real. "Are we pouting now?"

 

Your head snapped in his direction with a glare about as sharp as knives. "I told you not to call me that." You sized him up as he straightened his head. There was only one person on this entire planet who was allowed to refer to you as such; but ever since he saw the nickname written in a text to you, he took it upon himself to start using it as he pleased.

 

Chanyeol passed lingering fingers over your jaw, until they gently caressed your jawline. "I'm not allowed, but that guy on your phone is?" His thumb carefully pulled down at your red matte stained lips, curious as to how they felt against the pad of his finger. A few seconds of admiration to those lips, then up to those shiny dark orbs you used for eyes. "If you frown too much, you'll get wrinkles on your forehead," he teased.

 

Throwing your own words back in your face, huh? You grabbed his large hand, peeling his hand away from your face and flung it away into the air.  "Bite me."

 

"Right now?" His eyes surveyed the streets carefully, before finding the lobby of your building. "What if someone drives or walks past?" he cocked a brow, glancing back to you. "You want them to hear what's going on inside?"

 

"I take that back." He looked off, pushing his bottom lip. "Try sucking a dick instead." 

 

Chanyeol just chuckled at your same ol' attitude. It was that rather nonchalant, overconfident, blunt roughness, that kept most at bay. But even getting cursed on the regular couldn't keep him away. It's what pulled him in your direction in the first place. "It's too late for me," his hand caught hold of your nape and pulled you near. "I've obsessed since the first time."

 

A familiar heat set torch throughout your entire body in one go. It started from your thighs, over your behind, up your back, all along your arms, and across your breasts. Your features were so close that lips were only centimeters away from touching. And it had you rather curious; curious enough to steal a quick glance at his lips.

 

"I saw that," his measly whispers were enough to send the hairs all over your skin standing tall. "Just to remind you it takes two people to make this work. So it's your move."

 

Your fingers started from his jawline and slid up his face until his cheek sat comfortably in your palm. Eager to close the bothersome gap, you fluttered your eyes closed and went for it. It started with a little peck, but when his hand slipped in between your thighs you ended up getting sucked up into more than just that. The top of your lips started out under his, then his under yours. It went back and forth like that for a while until you inched away for a refill of air.

 

The tip of your tongue took time to leave a trail along the bottom of his lip, yet he wasted no time in opening up for you. Tangling himself up with you, he still tried to prove that he was to be the victor of this battle. His fingers pressed into you so hard that they had you shifting with tingles. He even felt the vibration of a yielding moan slip into his mouth. At last, when he tried pulling away, his bottom lip snapped back a bit.

 

"Good move," the ends of his now red tinted lips lazily tugged upward.

 

"It's late," you found his eyes again, but this time they were swirling with heavy desires. "I have to go inside, take a shower, and--"

 

"Play with yourself for a bit?" His teeth sunk into his bottom lip.

 

"Go to sleep," you flicked his forehead. Hopefully, that sobered him up from his frisky intentions just a little. "I've got a long day tomorrow. Lucky for you," you put a hand on the handle, "you get to go home after school."

 

But just as you got the door open, a strong grip pulled back on your forearm, insisting you stay just a little longer. "Just a minute, Bumi." You glanced back from the corner of your eyes. "When are we gonna get back to the topic of us?"

 

You sighed.  _''This again.'_

 

"Hear me out." He knew where you were coming from, being that this conversation was a topic of discussion a few times in the past. But a proper conclusion always ended up getting pushed to the side by a new topic or saved for another time. 

 

"It's not like I've been hooking up with any girls since I confessed, and you haven't been with any other guys. It's just been me and you, right? I've liked this game of cat and mouse we've got going on for the past six months but...I'm getting tired of it. Mostly because we haven't moved past whatever this is."

 

You kept your lips firmly closed. "I could wait a little longer if you'll just admit that you like me too." You refused to turn your head to him. "You can't tell me that you don't feel at least a little something."

 

"I never once told you to wait for me." Was your response to that.

 

"If you really weren't interested, you would've just gone straight home today." He raised a brow. "Am I right or wrong?"

 

You rolled your eyes then lifted them to the tinted window but when trying to look into the lobby, you accidentally focused on his face. He was watching you the same way, but his lips and eyebrows formed an unusual straight line. The hard look in his eyes as he watched you forced your gaze to fall back on the door handle.

 

"Before you go to bed I want you to just think about it. Promise me."  
  


 

You looked up when his grip loosened up and then back to find his pinky stretched out patiently. "You're actually trying to get me to pinky promise you? What're you in primary school?"

 

"Come on," he shoved it closer to your face. "And you better lock it too," his thumb wiggled.

 

"Fine," you reached over hooked our pinky and pressed your thumb against his. "Happy?"

 

"Not until I can kiss you in public without having to worry about my balls getting punched." His smile returned to him.

 

"You're seriously so--" you shook your head away. "Night. Don't forget to do your paper."

 

"I won't. Sleep tight." His hand flew out a kiss to you. The door shut back closed and Chanyeol's eyes followed you all the way inside until you got into the elevator.  
  
  
  


Finally, inside your house, you went ahead and did everything you said you were gonna do except sleep. Chanyeol made you pinky swear to consider his feelings tonight but that wasn't an easy task.

 

You checked the time on your iPad and read "Ten-forty-seven..." Maybe Chaeyoung was still up. So you laid flat on your back and tried calling her. The phone rang on and on until a pair of nostrils greeted you.

 

"When's the last time you cleaned your nose?"

 

Chaeyoung clapped a hand over her nose and pulled the phone away from being so close. She even went so far as to cover her phone for a few seconds.

 

"I'm kidding," you smiled.

 

"Agh!" she groaned. "Don't do that," she brought herself back into view. "I was really checking just now."

 

"What're you doing?"

 

"Snacking." She stretched her hand out and in came a view of her crossed legs with a giant container of cheese balls sitting in between them. "And this stupid paper." she tilted it forward slightly to show the laptop sitting in front of her. "What's up?" she grabbed a couple of them and threw them in her mouth.

 

"I'm being forced into a crisis."

 

Her brows scrunched together. "What kind?"

 

You sighed, rolling over onto your stomach. "Chanyeol's really handsome, isn't he?" You tucked your hand under your chin. "He pays me a lot of attention, feeds me, takes me out, makes sure I get home safe, gives me good sex...." you closed your eyes as you huffed air through your nose. "But why can't I have all that without strings attached?"

 

"Ah..." So it was this kind of thing. "But don't you like him even a little?" 

 

"Not in the way that he assumes. Just because we messed around here and there, and I agree to do stuff with him, he swears that I feel the same way, but that's not it. He's not even that close to my ideal."

 

"Then start messing with someone else."

 

"But they're not like Chanyeol. At least with him, he doesn't need to run his mouth to our other friends."

 

Chaeyoung squinted, as she threw a chip ball in her mouth. "Kinda sounds like you like him."

 

"It's no the case," you said. "If it weren't for all those good qualities, I wouldn't have bothered with him in the first place." You huffed. "I admit I sound like a selfish bitch, but that's just how I feel."  Especially because it was a topic that sucked your life force away, to this day.

 

"Wow," she blinked. "When'd you get to be so horrible behind my back?"

 

You sighed."I'd end things with him, but what's gonna be left of our friendship?"

 

"You're thinking about friendship now?" You clicked your tongue. "Let's face it, you knew what you were getting into, right? You knew he had feelings for you since the near beginning, right? Rule #1 of having a friend with benefits...Make sure there's no feelings involved!"

 

"What do I do?" you whined. "It wasn't even something we planned. It just...happened!"

 

"Should've thought about that before you let him 'finger something else'."

 

Your brief chuckles fell flat and grew into another groan. "Chaeyoung, help me."

 

She stuffed more cheese balls in her mouth. "Esh gonna ee hine," she munched for a few seconds and swallowed. "No need to get all upset." She waved a dismissive hand at the camera. "What do you feel like want more? Do you wanna back out? Or keep on."  
  


 

You blinked in silence, shifted your eyes away, and muttered, "I want my benefits...But the stick in his ass is telling him it's not enough."

 

Then why don't you just try dating him and see how things go? You might actually like it if it works out," she shrugged. "If it doesn't, then oh well. But if you do it this way, Chanyeol is happy for a while and you won't feel like an a-hole using him for his goodies."

 

"I guess that makes sense...But the whole boyfriend-girlfriend tag is such a pain in the ass," you groaned once more.

 

She winked at you. "Sometimes you have to sacrifice a little to gain a little."


	7. Chapter 7

A/N*: So the Hoseok of this story is not Hobi, but Wonho (of Monsta X).

 

"Look who's waiting outside of Bumi's class like a loyal dog." A group mate from Chanyeol's project playfully punched at his shoulder when he walked up. "What's with the tense ass face man."

 

Chanyeol glanced up from his phone with a cold stare. He only replaced his hardened features with half a smile when he realized who it was standing in front of him. "Hey," he slipped his phone into his windbreaker's pocket and leaned up off his shoulder. A friendly fist bump came first, but to catch him off guard, he hooked his arm around his neck right after. "A dog, you said? Watch your mouth," he squeezed.

 

"It was a joke! I give!" He managed to laugh even through suffocation. "Could've killed me just now," he soothed his neck. "Anyways, you're finished with classes for the day?"

 

"Yup, I'm just waiting on her so we can get our other friend and go stuff our faces." Chanyeol slipped his hands into his pocket and leaned his shoulder back against the wall. "Where're you going now?" he waved his pocket out.

 

"Oh, can I come with?" his brows raised. "I'm starving."

 

He shrugged. "If you've got your own cash I don't see the problem."

 

"Cool. It's good that I ran into you now though. I was gonna text you later but now's a good time too. A few of us guys are going to the internet cafe uptown a little later on. You wanna come? You can bring your lady friends too."

 

"Sure, I'll be there."

 

"Hey," you finally walked out of the classroom. Your eyes went from Chanyeol to his friend, then back to him next. "Let's get Chaeyoung and go eat. Doyoung is already waiting there, and I'm starving."

 

"Hi, Bumi," the friend wiggled his fingers like a goof. "I'll be joining you guys for lunch today."

 

"Hey," from head to toe he took you all in, being it was a casual thing to do at this point. "Did you think about last night?" He met your eyes again.

 

"I did." He watched as you took the zipper of his windbreaker and hooked it onto the other side. Then you clasped it together and watched it run all the way up to his neck.

 

He even noticed how your hands hadn't left his zipper just as yet. "And?"

 

You kept your eyes fixed on his zipper. "After we eat let's go back to your car so I can sleep for a bit. I didn't get enough sleep last night."

 

"Bumi," the low tone in his voice made you look up. "Tell me."

 

You dropped your hands from his zipper and reached inside his pocket for his hand. "Let's just go." Your fingers fought their way into the spaces between his, but got annoyed by his phone so you took it out, put it in your own jacket pocket, then slid your hand back in his pocket. When it sat firmly in his you looked away again.

 

Chanyeol dropped his head to get a good look at what the soft texture pressed against his palm was accurate. "You're holding my hand. In public?" His eyes were wide by the time he lifted them to you again.

 

"Isn't that what couples do?"

 

It took him a few seconds to comprehend it but when he did he leaned up off his arm and took unclasped his fingers from yours just to hold both cheeks in his palms. "So you're my girlfriend now?" He pressed his forehead against yours. His cheeks were so high, it felt like they were going to stick just like that for the rest of his life.

 

"Stop making a big deal out of it."

 

"I want to." He smooched the tip of your nose. "I'm happy," he confessed. "Really happy." The next smooch went on your lips, causing an instant flinch away and Chanyeol's brow to raise.

 

"My bad," you said. You forgot that from this moment on Chanyeol was now your boyfriend. So it was okay for others to glance your way and look off without near care in the world. To them, you were just a really good-looking couple, displaying their affections to one another in the middle of the hallway, in between classes.

 

He took your hand out of his pocket, turned around, and lead you away from the doorway. "I'll still pay for you." For this moment, everyone else was nonexistent in Park Chanyeol's world.

 

"Wait up!" his friend called from behind.

 

 

The following day, on a Tuesday morning, Taehyung crept into the cafe with his a fist clenched around the straps of his camera bag, and eyes surveying the chatter-filled room the further he got. Working the cash register was Daniel, but he didn't bother greeting them because what business did he have talking to the creep of the team.

 

When he pushed through the door he noticed both you and another good looking co-worker he had never seen before, standing around with arms crossed, leaned against the edge of the counter and table, talking to one another.

 

"Oh," a lopsided grin rose to his lips, "is this our new guy?" He pushed himself off the steel table and walked over to him with a hand held out for a shake. "Your Taehyung-ssi, right?" He nodded, reaching his own out. "Our schedules finally match up so we can meet." At his hesitance, Taehyung was nearly yanked forward by Hoseok's overly firm grip. "I'm the manager here at the cafe."They shook twice and released. "My name's Hoseok, but you can just call me Hoseok hyung."

 

"You're the manager?" he glanced your way. "But I thought Bumi-ssi was..."

 

Hoseok chuckled. "I've been working here a while longer than Bumi," he then raised his index finger with a single key whirling around it. "She only started working here a year before her high school graduation. But," he looked back to you, who was still fiddling with your ear."I won't deny that she's basically like my second in command at this point."

 

"Oh," he nodded. But on the second glance in your direction, you had the same unamused face that he usually found you sporting. Like whenever he stepped into the room, you chose not to smile. Sneers and furrowed brows were all that he thought he was ever going to see. It was rather intimidating at this point, being in the same room as you; but even so, smiling or not, it couldn't take away the exquisiteness of your beauty.

 

You squinted. "Why do you have two bags with you?" You stared at the all-black book bag on his back and then the black tattered one with many compartments, dangling beside his thigh. One you hadn't seen before

 

"O-oh," he blinked twice as fast. "It--It's gym clothes." He just didn't feel too comfortable telling you the truth, lest it spur on the wrong idea and interrogate him further.

 

"Gym clothes?" In a bag like that? It wasn't even a duffle bag, which was the usual thing to carry such clothes in, along with equipment.

 

You eyed Taehyung down for only a few seconds longer before dismissing him with a, "whatever." You weren't sure what he was hiding but, for the time being, you weren't going to tax your brain out because of it.

 

"How've the kids been treating you so far?" Hoseok caught the key and reached his hands back to lean up against the edge of the table again.

 

"Everyone's been treating me well," he nodded meekly. When in truth he was basically the outcast of the team. The outcast who went around leaving creepy letters in the girl's lockerroom and refused to see to his body odor.

 

"Come to me if you find something or anyone troubling you. I'll handle it for you."

 

For his kindness, Taehyung managed to give half a smile. He put a grip back on his bag strap. "Thank you." He then passed the both of you, "I'm going to go get changed now." But the conversation didn't wait for him to leave before it started back up again.

 

"Oppa, don't think about getting too friendly with that guy," you muttered. "He's a weirdo. Did Chaeyoung even tell you about how..."

 

'My name is getting really bad around here,' his shoulder fell as a sigh escaped his lips. 'And it's only my second week.'

 

Taehyung got to the back hallway and noticed that there was, 'no sign of Chanyeol so far...Maybe he got here not too long ago and is in the locker room.' But that wasn't the only thing he noticed. The door of his boss' office was open. "Guess I better take this chance and ask before I go in and face him.

 

"So he entered, not forgetting to knock on the door before he entered, just in case he was in his bathroom. "Hello, Son-nim? It's Taehyung," he announced. But there was dead silence in the room. "Sir?" he raised his volume and stepped past the threshold.

 

He wasn't there. Taehyung looked left and right, and then behind him for a clear coast. If he wasn't here, then maybe he could just leave his bag inside for the day and return for it later. Yeah, that seemed like a good plan. "I'll leave it behind his desk. Just in case anyone passes by." So he quickly tiptoed off behind the desk and gently laid his camera bag down on underneath it. "I'll see you much later," he whispered to it, before jogging back out the room.

 

Taehyung just barely pushed open the door of the men's locker room to check for the scary male. 'He's not here?' His eyes scanned as much as it could before pushing the door open. In fact, no one was there.

 

He breathed a sigh of relief and walked to his locker to fiddle with his combination lock. "Guess I'll just get my camera bag and just put it in my locker then."

 

Once he finished getting changed into his uniform, he quickly stuffed his book bag inside the locket and went out to fetch his camera bag. He had only gotten to put a hand on the door frame before you came walking out into the hall.

 

"How could you forget to take out the menus for--" When you faced forward, you butted Taehyung standing awkwardly beside your uncle's office, fiddling with his fingers. "What're you doing out here?"

 

He raised his hands to his chest, still acting like a fidgeting mess."I was just wondering if Son-nim was around because I had something I wanted to ask him. Is he around?"

 

"If you didn't see him on your way here, then he clearly isn't here."

 

"Yeah," his eyes wandered away from your judgmental gaze. "And he's not coming back?"

 

"He's out today," you walked past him and into the room. "And tomorrow, too."

 

"Oh," he said. "I see." Which meant he wasn't going to get to retrieve his camera until the end of the day.


	8. Chapter 8

After what felt like a long shift, you closed the door and flipped the sign over to closed. "Good work guys," you raised your voice enough for Hoseok to hear from the kitchen. Both Daniel and Nayeon got a head start on sweeping, while you and Taehyung took care of wiping down the tables and chairs.

 

"How many tips did you guys get today?" Daniel asked, shaking the pockets of his black apron with a grin. "We had a fair amount of girls today. I feel like I've got you two beat."

 

You scoffed. "In total, I've got $41. How much do you have," you approached the middle of the floor to get a peek at his pockets."

 

"How the heck did you beat me?" he opened up his pockets. "I've got $25."

 

You turned your back on him and looked over your shoulder. "What can I say?" you shrugged. "When men see a pretty face like this, they can't help themselves. Plus that one guy that really likes me came around today." You rubbed your fingers. "He threw in $20."

 

"I think that guy's gonna come in here and ask for your hand," Nayeon joked. "Sooner than you think."

 

Daniel rolled his eyes and continued on sweeping down the floor. "I think I should get some surgery to look more like a girl. If I did, I could seriously compete when I work with you, Chaeyoug, and Nayeon noona."

 

You and Nayeon laughed. "Then we'll have to take care of our make up since you'll be looking like a hot mess," she joked.

 

Just then, your back pocket vibrated on and on, until you slipped it out. "This kid..." you muttered.

 

"Is that Chanyeol?" Nayeon wiggled her brows knowingly.

 

You peeked over your shoulder. "And if it is?"

 

Her grin stretched out to her eyes. "Tell him I said, we took care of his precious Bumi all day long."

 

Your eyes got huge. "He told you already?"

 

"He told everyone," she lapped her hands on top the broom and relaxed her head down on it. "He's got so many hearts all over his recent Instagram post."

 

"I think it said," Daniel chimed in. "'Happiest guy on this planet. Angel emoji. Officially taken by her. Heart, heart, heart. Double heart. Purple heart, blue heart, yellow heart, and then a ton of heart eyes'." He and Nayeon immediately burst out into a fit of giggles.

 

"He's gonna come in here tomorrow and rub it in our faces." Nayeon scoffed, rolling her eyes simultaneously. "I can already see it." 

 

You slapped your forehead. "He's so fucking annoying with that," you cursed under your breath, before unlocking your phone to read the messages of him sending:

 

 

What a fool you'd be to turn down a ride on an exhausting day like this. So, of course, you texted back.

You stared down at the messages with a dulled expression.  _'Boyfriend and girlfriend, huh?'_  To others, it might have seemed like titles without much weight onto them, but on your shoulders, it felt...different. "I'll be right back," you slipped your phone into your apron pocket. "I need the toilet."

 

You walked into the kitchen and found Hoseok wiping the table down with a cleaning wipe, while the actual container of wipes sat on the metal table behind him. "Oppa, give me your spare key," you held out your hand.

 

He reached into his back pocket and slipped it out. "Everything okay?" He chucked it over to you. It was normal for him not to see you accompanied with a smile, but from the looks of it, right now, you looked like you couldn't smile, even if you wanted to.

 

You snatched it mid-air and quickly turned your back on him. "I just forgot something inside uncle's office." As soon as you put the key in the door, you turned the knob, pushed it open, and slipped right on it. You turned the knob once more to hide the clip, just so you could ease the door back closed. When it was, you turned and dropped your weight on it.

 

With your back against the door, you hung your head and your shoulders fell with the releasing of a sigh. You couldn't believe you had to entertain this one-sided relationship, not just behind closed doors, but in public as well. Yes, you and Chanyeol had good chemistry, but this wasn't what you wanted. It was good chemistry, but it didn't call for a relationship. He wasn't even your type.

 

 _'I gotta sit down.'_  You trudged over to your uncle's desk, pulled out the comfy leather swivel chair and plopped down with all your weight. Legs stretched out, and arms dangling over the arms of the chair, you gazed up at the ceiling. 

 

This was also an unnamed reason as to why you didn't want a relationship in the first place. The only worries thus far were keeping up with your studies, keeping your appearance in check, and keeping your name out of any dirt, but now you had to worry about keeping someone else other than yourself happy.

 

All because of your lack of self-control, you dug a hole through your friendship and burrowed yourself into a place of no return.  _'You dumb bitch,'_  you cursed yourself, using little strength in your legs to drag his body closer to the desk. 

 

You ended up taking your phone out again to make an emergency call. You had this number saved on speed dial, but ironically never got to use it much. Even when you did, you could only imagine how hard it was for them to return your calls.

 

You pulled your body forward and sat your elbow down on the desk, letting it slide down with a fist-filled cheek following behind it. "Please pick up," you pled.  _'Please...'_  So you could keep your head from exploding.

 

_"BunBun!"_

 

An immediate smile spread across your lips. It wasn't because of the nickname itself, but the person who shouted it. "Woosung-ah." The original user. "Or should I call you Sammy?" He scoffed a chuckle. "I can't believe you actually picked up one of my calls."

 

 _"Hey, you know how badly I want to return them, but it's only because of our schedule that I'm unable to most times."_  You watched the male rake his fingers through the short bangs of his platinum-dyed hair through the video call.  _"And sometimes you even seem so busy for me to call."_

 

"I'm never too busy for your calls."

 

Woosung chuckled lowly, showing his teeth.  _"I check your Instagram page every now and then to check up on you. You seem so happy with your newer friends. And did you get yourself a boyfriend?"_

 

You sighed. "Let's not talk about any of that." That's what you wanted to pull yourself away from for the time being. "Where are you headed now?" You noticed the street lamps shining above him every once in a while.

 

_"I'm on my way to eat bbq with my bandmates."_

 

"They're with you now?" You guessed it had to be the case from the low chatters coming from around him.

 

 _"Yeah,"_  he nodded.  _"You wanna meet them?"_  Before you could answer, he turned his head back and asked,  _"Guys, say hi to a close old friend of mine."_  And they flocked over his, trying to get a look at this person.

 

 _"Oh,"_  you heard, before a couple of whispers.  _"Hello!"_

 

 _"Hi,"_  one waved with his greeting.

 

"Hello," you nodded a greeting to them each, including the third who peered into the camera with a waving hand.

 

 _"Okay, okay,"_  he shooed them away.  _"So,"_  he glanced up ahead, checking his left and right side before he continued to walk. _"What's going on with you, hm?"_  he looked back down to you.

 

You pulled your fist from underneath you and let your cheek fall to your arm instead. "I'm just missing your company." The tips of your fingers reached over to play with the top of your head, but you got lazy in the end and let it fall back onto the desk. "I'm doing well but...I'd be even better with you here."

 

The corners of his lips quirked downward. "S _orry."_

 

"For what?" your brows arched at his fallen expression.

 

_"For leaving you all alone. I feel responsible for you being all lonely-like."_

 

"Don't apologize for something like that. It's not like I'm depressed or anything. I'm just missing my good friend. And you're doing what you love, aren't you? I'll always be here supporting you."

 

 _"And I'm always supporting you."_  Either of you couldn't help pulling a smile for the other.

 

"Come back and see me soon, okay?"

 

 _"It's a promise then,"_  he shook a finger to the screen.  _"I'll definitely see my best supporter within the next  two months."_

 

You rolled your eyes. "I'd be happy if you weren't actually pulling my leg."

 

_"No, I'm serious. We're discussing which places we're going to be performing at, and I'll make sure to get a stop closest to you, okay?"_

 

Your smile grew wider. "Okay." Excitement grew inside of you, the thought of seeing him in person again after these few years, made you happy. Even your feet wanted to swing enjoy. But it didn't get far on the first try. Something stopped it dead in its track. 

 

You pushed yourself up and away from the desk and took a look underneath the desk. "What's a bag doing here?"

 

_"Bumi?"_

 

"Woosung," you looked back to your phone and flipped it back vertical. "I don't want to cut our talk short, but I'm gonna have to go now. We'll talk again real soon, won't we?"

 

"No doubt. Take care until we do," he waved. "Bye."

 

"Bye," you waved back. You tapped with your thumb to end the call and left the phone on the desk. Then you looked back to the object in front of your feet.

 

You thought for a second or two that it had belonged to your uncle, but once you raked it out into the light, you tilted your head. "This looks familiar..." So you thought back to where you had seen it. "Wait, this tattered thing belongs to Taehyung." Your brows knitted. "Why the hell does he have his bag in here? When did he even get in here?" So you thought some more.

 

"The door was open when he came in this morning, so he snuck it inside before he went to change...That little sneak." But why here? "He must be hiding something that he doesn't want the others to see." Then you remembered the excuse he told. "Let's see if there's really gym clothes in this thing."

 

You dragged the bag up onto the desk and realized that it had a weight bigger than gym clothes. "A sneak and a liar." You unzipped the bag and peeked inside just to see a reflection. "A camera?" You reached inside and pulled it out. 

 

The real question is, why did he bring a professional camera to work? "Maybe the perverted bastard wanted a chance to take pictures of Chaeyoung. Or all of us!" You were peeved at this point. "If he thinks he's gonna get away with that crap, he's got another thing coming."

 

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom," Taehyung said, when he finally saw you walking back into the dining room.

 

"You can get changed afterward," Daniel said. "Bumi can do the last two," he pointed to the last two in the right side of the room.

 

He smiled timidly, "okay." Taehyung draped the rag down on the back of the chair closest to the counter and went jogging into the kitchen.

 

"Good work today," Hoseok said.

 

"You too," he raised a hand. "Please let the office be open," he pled under his breath. As soon as he stepped into the hall, his face lit up. Taehyung wasted no time in going in, getting his bag, and getting out before anyone noticed.

 

Right away he went to his locker and rested it down carefully on the floor. "That was easy," he said, turning the lock back and forth. "I thought I would've had to think of a way to get inside there." Then he thought,  _'Maybe_ _Hoseok_ _hyung_ _went in sometime today and forgot to lock back.'_  His heart missed an entire beat when he pulled the lock open and then the door.  _'I hope he didn't go behind his desk.'_

 

When Taehung slipped his shirt on, Daniel walked into the locker room.  _I wonder how many tips he gets when he's serving the customers.'_

 

"Hey, did you get any tips?" Daniel stood in front of the 2nd locker from the door and started turning his lock back and forth.

 

"Oh, not really. No..." He pulled his book bag out from the locker. "Nothing compared to what the rest of you seem to get."

 

"Don't worry, the regulars will see your effort soon enough and help out." Upon his mouth curving into a smile, Taehyung awkwardly smiled back.

 

Chanwoo glanced over the same time he had moved to pick up his camera bag and asked, "what's in the bag?"

 

He looked down at it, "just my camera."

 

"You're a photographer? That's cool," he nodded.

 

"Thanks," Taehyung's lips pressed together, trying to hold back his bashful grin. That was the first time anyone with good looks had ever complimented anything he had done.

 

"About what happened with Chaeyoung last week, don't worry about it. You seem like a harmless guy, so I don't think you really did what the girls said.

 

"Thanks, I'll try." He looked towards the door. "Well I'm gonna get going now," he waved. "See you tomorrow."

 

"See ya," he returned the gesture.

 

Taehyung then went out the front door, made a left past his bus stop and walked on and on. He looking left and right, hoping something would eventually catch his eye. Five minutes of trailing down the sidewalk and nothing yet. "Oh! Maybe I could get a picture of these buildings."

 

He walked over further up the apartment buildings to choose the best angle to go from. "Here." He stopped on the left side of them. "This is good." When he looked up, the bounty of bountiful was pretty captivating. It was just natural. With the corner of his lips reaching from ear to ear, Taehyung unzipped his bag and reached in for his camera.

 

"Huh?" But there was only air in its place. Taehyung dropped his head into the bag, trying to open it up wider as if it was hiding on the side somewhere. "I definitely put it in here this morning." He shook it. "Where is it?" Taehyung's heart slipped into the pit of his stomach. "The cafe!"

 

Taehyung took off like lightning, while sloppily trying to zip the camera bag closed again. "Please, please, please, let someone still be there!" His heart was beginning to clench on the 3rd block, and his steps were getting heavier. "Crap!" he quickly came to a stop, holding onto his knees to catch a quick breath. "My camera," he huffed.

 

People were glancing over and turning heads to find him completely out of breath. Some even looked back and ahead to see if he was running from something.

 

But as tired as he was, Taehyung took one last breath and picked up his feet once more for one last sprint down the last block. Heaving and huffing past his heart that felt like he was going to pop at any given second. When Taehyung finally made it to the cafe, it felt like knives were trying to slice open his vocal cords.

 

"No," he held onto his knees once more. Not a single light was on.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/n: I was knocked for most of the day...then I forgot when I woke up...resulting in this late update.**

 

"Alright." You jumped right into bed and folded your legs. "Time to investigate." You held the camera in your hands and a slight sneer on your features as you turned it over and over. "Where's the stupid power button." It wasn't on the top at first glance, so you flipped the camera all around until you were back at the start again. "Oh." By some kind of magic, you found the button staring right back.

 

"Let's see how many girls you've taken pictures of, mister lying sneak." When you pressed it on, you were faced with options on top of options. "What is all this..." Which one was supposed to take you to the pictures? For the next minute, you sat there pressing the up and down arrow keys looks for "the gallery!" you smirked.

 

Once you pressed enter, that smirk of yours dried out. "Cars?" Two rows of them parked down the sidewalk with the sunset in the background. "A convenience store?" With a black and white filter, taken from an upward view. It sat on the corner of a block between two other stores as far as you could see. "A frickin' bench?" With a side view and two big trees sanding in the back. It also had a black and white filter.

 

Each time you pressed that right arrow, all it gave you was another slide of beautiful scenery. "No girls?" As a matter of fact, there were little to no people among them all. "Oh..." The next picture nearly stole your breath away. "So pretty." The way the city buildings lights reflected off the water at night time. Just the right angle. It got you curious to see if there were any more like it.

 

Ten minutes later you were still admiring his photos. "Just how many of these did he take?" You glanced up the top right-hand corner and found, "Over two-hundred?" Your eyes were bulging out their sockets. "And I'm only on the 42nd one."

 

You blinked down at the current photo, and said, "so what...he wasn't trying to take pictures of us?" You had to text her the truth in a bit. She's still waiting to see what you can find to try and get him fired. "I guess he was trying to take more pictures after his shift." Your shoulders fell. "The heck...now I feel bad for snooping." Not only that. "He must be going crazy looking for this thing, too." First snooping through his privacy and then leaving him to panic about his seemingly lost camera.

 

You nibbled on your bottom lip. You had to return this to him by hand, it was only right that you did. And you had to make sure to apologize double. "I have to look extra apologetic tomorrow. But first..." you backed out of the photos and went to the camera before flipping it around.

 

"Let's get rid of these for a second," you took of your ugly, yet favorite glasses, and got up from bed to grab the prettier pair sitting outside of its case on your desk. "Now..." You slid them on your face and stretched your arms out. "Let's try cute." It wasn't your usual kind of selfie to take, but you could still pout those slightly plump lips and give the camera puppy eyes every now and then.  _'1...2...'_  Snap. "Oh," you pulled it down to your lap, "not bad." The lighting from your lamp was perfect.

 

"Something a little sexier..." This kind was a bit more in your field. This time you pulled down the stringy straps of your tank top and finally stretched your arms out. Your eyes closed shut and nibbled at the corner of your bottom lip.  _'1...2...'_  Snap.

 

"That should be good enough." You turned off the camera and put it, along with your glasses, on your desk at last. "Ah, so tired..." You slipped under your covers and hugged your pillow. "I'll tell her the news tomorrow." You reached out for your lamp string and pulled it to find peace in the dark.  
  
  


 

Unlike the other afternoons, Taehyung moped into work with a long frown, baggy eyes and slumped shoulders. Instead of walking with a bit more energy, his feet dragged along the glazed wooded floor, and his hands hung lifeless by his side. 

 

"Hey," Wooseok passed by with quick steps to get to the table near the door.

 

Instead of responding, he trudged through the dining room and behind the counter, where he nearly collided into Hoseok.

 

"Oh, hey, Taehy--" The friendly greeting dried up from his mouth when Taehyung bowed and bypassed him to enter the kitchen. "What's with him?" his eyes followed him until the door swung back closed. "He looks like he got dumped," he then stepped back to his place behind the register.

 

Even Chanyeol didn't realize Taehyung was behind him until he looked up from kneading the dough. When he was ready to push open the door, "ow!" The door came swinging out instead and hit him smack dead in the face. Even Chanyeol checked to see for who it was.

 

"Oops," you said.

 

"Dumbass," Chanyeol muttered.

 

You raised a brow. "Oh, it's you. Looks like I got my revenge then."

 

"Sorry, I was spacing out," he cupped and rubbed on his nose.

 

"Your job's not the place to be spacing out."

 

He nodded. "Sorry." The dreary and depressed look on his face didn't make you feel any better about what you had done. "I'll go change and clock in now." He took a step to the side.

 

But before he passed completely, you lowered your tone and told him, "when you're finished, wait for me in front of my uncle's office."

 

Despite being told in a near whisper, it was enough to jolt Taehyung's brain for a couple of seconds. His head snapped back at your parting figure.  _'Wait for her?'_  He continued on out the door to the locker room.

 

As soon as he finished, he stood by your uncle's office, just as you told him to, but with knots twists round in his stomach. With his lips pressed together, he wondered,  _'did I do something wrong?'_  He folded his hands behind his back and pressed it against the wall.  _'Am I going to be scolded for something I didn't do?'_ Again? Tension rose in his shoulders, and his feet stuck together at the sides.

 

Two minutes later, the door swung out with you coming out of it. Without even glancing his way, you said, "follow me."

 

Taehyung's eyes followed you all the way down the end hall. _'Where...The girl's locker room?'_  His brows arched when you stopped in front of the door.

 

"Hurry up," was all you said before pushing open the door.

 

He took a glance out the little round window in the door to the kitchen, just to check if Chanyeol was aware in the least. When he glanced back down the hall, you were gone. "Oh man..." his brows furrowed from worry, before jogging down to you. "Bumi-ssi?" he pushed the door open just enough to peek inside. "What could she possibly want to give me in here?" he swallowed.

 

"Come in already! We don't have all day."

 

Quick on his feet, his body followed his head into the room. "Yes?" A couple feet of space stood in between the two of you, as the door closed back itself. His lashes were going nonstop, and his shoulders wouldn't loosen up in the slightest.

 

"I have something for you," you told him.

 

Taehyung stared on. He couldn't help to notice your hands behind your back.  _'What's_   _going on?'_  Meanwhile, his own hands were glued together in front of him.

 

You brought your hands around in front and showed him. "This."

 

His eyes got huge. "My camera!" He instinctively took steps to retrieve it, but stopped his aggressive approach. From the time he stood in front of the owner's office, he had long forgotten about his camera, thinking that he was going to be scolded for something he might've done.

 

"You must've been looking for it all over, right?" You closed the distance with your own steps and handed it to him.

 

He gave a single nod. "How did you know?"

 

"I'm the one who took it."

 

His eyes widened. "But why?"

 

"It had no place underneath my uncle's desk. This is what we have locker rooms for.

 

"Ah..." His eyes inched down towards the floor. "About that..." He really thought he had a gotten away with it unnoticed. Then he picked them back up. "Was that the only reason why you took it?" He understood it wasn't supposed to be there, but still.

 

You crossed your arms over your chest. "Partially," you admitted. "I actually really wanted to see if you'd have some hidden secret stash of half-naked girls inside there. Chaeyoung and Nayeon unnie were sure that you would."

 

Again with that? His forehead scrunched together. "But I'm not like that!" Your eyes went wide, alarmed by his sudden outburst. "I didn't even write that letter to Chaeyoung-ssi. I swear!" His brows were furrowed, and his irritation was prominent. "I would never do something like that."

 

"Relax," your brows creased some. "There's no need to yell." Due to your refusal to flare up just as he, Taehyung's anger fizzled away. "I witnessed with my own two eyes that truth." He blinked. "Cars, parks, buildings, rivers...Maybe it's a cover-up, but for the moment, I'm choosing to believe my eyes."

 

Taehung pursed his lips. Yeah, it was nice of you to say that you finally believed him, but what really caught his ears... "You looked through my pictures?"

 

Your brows furrowed even further. "Don't think I snoop through people's belongings for fun. That's not what I'm about. I just had to confirm whether or not you needed to be fired."

 

Taehyung's gaze fell to his hands. "Okay..." He turned the camera lends around to him and kept in his silence.

 

"The pictures were pretty though." He lifted his gaze again. "Especially the one with the building reflecting off the water..." The tension in your forehead eased at the memory. "It was nice."

 

"You looked through all of them?" he asked, with a hint of anticipation.  _'But there's so many.'_

 

"I stopped around forty-something. It was getting late and I had enough evidence to report back to the others with." His mouth shaped into an 'O' before it pressed into a thin line. "Speaking of which, I'm sure they've noticed that we're not back out there by now," you glanced towards the door. "I just called you in to apologize and give back what belongs to you."

 

He nodded. "Thank you, Bumi-ssi." He managed to get the sincerest of smiles on his lips after a while. "I'm just glad it wasn't really lost. All my best memories are inside here." 

 

"One more thing, I hope you don't mind, but I took some pictures of my own with your camera." He looked down at it. "They're probably not as good as what you've got, but that's for you to decide." You walked towards the door. "You can keep or delete them," you shrugged. "I don't care. Make sure you wait 3 minutes before you come out to the front." You yanked the door far out enough for you take your swift exit, leaving Taehyung to stand there.

 

When Taehyung got into the kitchen, he found you and Chanyeol's bodies pressed against each other. His arms wrapped comfortably around your waist, and face deep in your neck, to your dismay from what he could read. 

 

 _'Are they dating?'_  he wondered. You tried your best to wriggle away from him, with swears flying from your lips, but that was only because he was trying to wipe his fresh beads of sweat forehead into yours. Once a warning came to him, Chanyeol peeled back and put his puckered lips against your forehead.

 

 _'They must be.'_  He pushed the door open and exited into the dining room to start collecting orders.  
  



	10. Chapter 10

When closing time came around, moans and groans filled the cafe after the flip of the sign. It had been a long day for each employee at hand, and there wasn't a single person who didn't wish to drop everything and go home immediately.

 

"Alright, since it's that kind of night," Wooseok put a pause in his sweeping and held out a fist. "How about a game of rock, paper, scissors?"

 

At his words, Taehyung watched you drape the wipe on the back of the chair, Chanyeol rest his broom against the side of the wall, and push open the door to retrieve Hoseok for the game.

 

 _'They're really going to play right now?'_  It wasn't the time for hand games though. They had an entire store to clean, and yet they chose to do this? But even so, they formed a circle on either side of him and held their fists out in front of them.

 

Taehyung decided not to pay them any more mind and moved on to the next table with the entire bottle of cleaning wipes. He took the tip of the wipe, jerked one out, and flattened it out against the surface to start cleaning up the tiny drips of coffee left behind by the last customers to sit. By this time, he found it strange how there hadn't been a sound as yet besides the shift of his feet and the wipes scraping against the hard plastic to be used.

 

From curiosity's call, he lifted his eyes to the circle of co-workers and stopped mid-wipe to their turned heads and watching him, as if he were the odd one in question. "Uh," he didn't even know what to follow up with.

 

"Unless you want to automatically stay back to clean this place," Hoseok started, "it's best that you play along."

 

Well, his not like he wanted to stay here any more than they did, so Taehyung draped the wipe on the back of one of the chairS and walked over to stand alongside them in battle. Hoseok opened up a spot beside him and Wooseok. He folded and leveled his fist with the rest of them and scanned the good-looking faces among him. "So," just to make sure he had the rules right, "whoever loses, has to stay back and clean, right?"

 

"That's the rules," you confirmed, continuing to alternate glances between fists and faces.

 

"Let's change them a bit." You kept a steady gaze on Wooseok, raising your brow to his suggestion. "The last two people standing have to stay back and clean."

 

"The hell? That's unfair!" You couldn't see why your gripes were chuckle-worthy.

 

"You just might win again, noona."

 

"Not with stakes like that," you grumbled. With everyone's fist held high, you said. "You lose if you don't play, rock paper scissors!" A second later, the only person screaming hollering for joy was the same youngest. "Rock paper scissors! Scissors!" Chanyeol was the next to fall to his knees, kissing his winning paper in happiness.

 

"I'm starting to get nervous," Hoseok said. "You?" he asked you.

 

"I'm gonna be so pissed if I have to stay back." It was time to get ultra serious. "Rock paper scissors!"

 

"Yes!" Hoseok took off from his spot and ran around the chairs and behind the register, two rocks high in the air. Only you and Taehyung were left to stand, staring down at your defeated scissors.

 

"You've gotta be fuc--"

 

"My poor baby," Chanyeol tried covering his excitement through his scarce sympathy for you, but of course, failed terribly. He wrapped his arms around your head and braced you against his chest. "Don't be mad," he said. "You were so close," he peeled himself back and left a smooch on the top of your head, then brushed back your bangs to leave a wetter one on your forehead. "How about I wait for you? Sound good?" Wooseok and Hoseok already got their headstart to the locker room, while Taehyung went to finish up on the table he started on.

 

Your brows kept knitted. "I'd rather you pick up a broom and keep cleaning."

 

"Aw," he stroked the top of your silky locks and stared into your fiery eyes. "Don't forget to do the kitchen, too." Instead of getting to swat down a lash on him, your hand slashed through the air just after he dodged out of the way. The black-haired male, taking a second to check just how mad you were, then broke out into laughter and ran off to changed out of his uniform.

 

By the time your three co-workers returned to the dining room, your face went even sourer as they took their places behind the register to clock out. They were all dressed and ready to go, ready to leave behind a workload meant for more than just two. When they finished, both Wooseok and Hoseok wished you two luck and waved you goodbyes with the smiles of victory on their faces.

 

Chanyeol was the last to finish and walked up to you, hands tucked away in the pocket of his jacket. But instead of waving his victorious smile around, his was small and sweet, just like the look in his eyes Taehyung noticed him watching you with. "I'm parked around the corner, 'kay?" Then with an acknowledged grumble, he walked on to the door and exited on account of the wind chimes.

 

His eyes then glanced over to you. The broom in your hand had belonged to Wooseok, but it was you now using it to sweep up the surrounding trash into the fresh pile he made. "I guess it's just us then." At your monotoned hum, he came to the conclusion that you weren't in the mood for chatting.  _'Okay then...'_ He pursed his lips as he bent over to get the seat of the chair.  _'Let's just clean up and get yourself home.'_

 

For the next 2 minutes, besides the sound of the brushing bristles and the feet of the screeching chairs being pulled and pushed to be cleaned, it was only dead awkward silence. At the start, it didn't seem like he would be bothered from it, but at this point, it was beginning to heavily feed into his consciousness.

 

Taking a glance up and around, Taehyung found you walking around the chairs and tables, just to see if there was anything that was missed.  _'Should I try talking to her?'_  When you passed by, the hardened expression on your face made him swallow with unease.  _'Nevermind.'_  He couldn't do it. It was better to keep his mouth shut, then potentially getting cursed.

 

"Is there a problem?" Suddenly being vocal, Taehyung jumped and went back to fixing the chairs. "I can feel you staring at me. You have something to say?"

 

He shook his head down to the seat. "No..." But only 5 seconds later, he took a peak from the corner of his eye to find you posted up with your hand your hip and a lift in your brow. Maybe an explanation was in order. "I was just wondering if you wanted to talk, since it's so quiet." His body faced you, yet his gaze wandered away to the windows. "But if you don't want to, it's fine. I don't wanna force you." The sound of your sigh put him very much on edge. At this point, he wished his voice was gone.

 

"I get that we had a conversation earlier today, but if it weren't for me taking your camera and returning it, would you still want to talk to someones who intimidates you?"

 

Taehyung glanced in your direction. "Um..." Well, you had a point there. If it weren't for his camera, he wouldn't have had nearly as much guts as it just took to even contemplate long on the subject of starting a conversation.

 

"I'm not gonna apologize for hitting you with the door, since you hit me first, but I guess you must've seen me as too harsh when I scolded you last week, right?" You watched as his gaze fell to his helpless fingers twisting among each other. "Think about it this way. If you were a customer walking into a restaurant, would you want to smell something bad when you went to order?" He shook his head. "Exactly."

 

Yeah, this conversation thing should've never become a thing. It was just bringing back up that horrible feeling from last week.

 

"But still, it must have hurt your feelings, right?" Taehyung lifted his eyes to you once more. "I'm woman enough to admit when I've gone too far about something, so I apologize if I made you feel bad." Each time he blinked, his eyes grew. "No need for you to worry about me biting your damn head off now, right? So talk if you want to." You then went around the table to gather the next pile.

 

After a slight buffer, the cogs in Taehyung's head worked hard to generate a fetching question to ask you. Maybe one about your relationship?  _'No, she might get annoyed.'_ Not to mention it wasn't any of his business. How long you had been working here?  _'But_ _Hoseok_ _hyung_ _already_ _answered that.'_

 

From what you could see, when you peeked up at him, he seemed to be having the utmost trouble just coming up with something to say, so, you did it for him. "You had a lot of pictures in your camera." He got out of his head to listen. "How long've you been taking pictures?"

 

"Since my second year in high school."

 

"From that long ago?" You finally walked behind the register to get to the garbage bin. "No wonder they seemed professional-like now." Though, your lidded eyes and dry tone failed to measure up to the compliment.

 

Still, it left small bashful curls in Taehyung's lips. "I'm not that good. There's tons more people who are way better." It was the first time someone like you, someone of your social status, had said something so nice about his passion.

 

You waited to finish knocking the dustpan against the bin to ask, "so, is that just your hobby or..."

 

"It used to be, but now it's my major. I'm hoping to become a professional in freelancing someday. Or maybe something for the entertainment business."

 

"I see..." You collected both the broom and dustpan, along with the extra broom leaning up beside the door to the kitchen.  _'At least he isn't shy to talk about what he loves to do. Unlike me.'_  But he wasn't the one who with a large social life. "If you're finished with the tables and chairs, help me get started on the kitchen."

 

Taehyung followed after you, just to find the room already partially cleaned. Just a few plates and forks were left in the sink; also flour, swipes of butter, and fruit juices still had to be wiped down off the counter.

 

You entered the kitchen again and found him already wiping the left side of the counter down with a rather energetic pace. _'I guess he's content now,'_  you thought. "I'm back."

 

He only allowed for a few seconds to pass by before turning to you and asking, "what about you, Bumi-ssi? What's your major?"

 

It was such a simple question. Just about any college student could answer it with confidence. And yet, being asked about your major always shifted you just outside your comfort zone. _'I'll just tell him to get it out the way.'_  But even so, there was hesitation before you spoke. You walked to the sink and swung the knob out to the left. "I'm majoring in art history." Your answer forced you to follow up with reason. "It's not exciting like other majors, but I like it, so..." You waited for the water to turn warm before grabbing the soap and sponge.

 

"Art History?" Out your peripheral view, you that smile of his stretched a tad wider. "I never would have guessed." Your head inched in his direction. "Are you planning to be an art teacher? Or an artist? I heard that course was a bit hard and sometimes boring, but I think it's worth it for those who take it, right?"

 

With each question our eyes grew on, catching you further and further off guard. "Uh--I..." Your brows furrowed from doubt. "Probably the first...." You watched his expression to find the slightest dip in interest, but failed to see such a thing.

 

"That's amazing!" At his exclamation, your eyes widened, causing his smile to falter. "Um," he forced out an awkward chuckle. "Sorry," he pushed up the bridge of his glasses and turned to get started on the table. "I didn't mean to get like that."

 

 _'Amazing?'_  That was the first time you had heard such a thing from someone you knew. But was he really the same guy who tried his best not to upset you? Forgetting to pick up a plate, you turned your body with him and asked, "Are you saying you like it? Art, I mean."

 

"Of course," he nodded. "Photography itself is just one form of art, y'know. But though it's my absolute favorite, I still like to see the other forms of art as well. Which kind is your favorite?" He couldn't resist turning around to see if any excitement was growing on you from the conversation, just like him.

 

Bearing witness to his enthusiasm called for you to remember those dishes weren't going to wash themselves and turned back to the sink. "I..." The knit in your brows eased out and raised in awe. "I like to draw."

 

"What do you like to draw?"

 

Your lips pressed into a thin line, though it was hard to keep it there for long. _'Why's a conversation with this guy getting me like this?'_  That was because it was the first exciting conversation about art you ever had with someone other than your professor. "Usually whatever seems pretty, or doodles when I'm bored." Did you actually have someone to share your hobbies with now?

 

"What have you drawn so far? Or the most of?"

 

You tried keeping our tone from escalating. "Just anything, really...Not a lot of things." But your mind went through the 4 stuffed folders of sketches you'd already done.

 

"I think everything is finished now," he said.

 

You whipped your head back around to check if the purpose for this great conversation was finished so soon. "Oh, uh...I'll be done in a minute. You can go get changed and wait for me by the door while I finish up."

 

"Okay," he nodded, and went on his way to put the cleaning wipes back in the cleaning supply closet."

 

Once the two of you changed, you opened the door and parted ways. Him going left, and you, right to meet up with Chanyeol. But on your way, you couldn't help replaying the strangely good conversation in your head.

 

"All finished?" But then he became more interested in that half smile sitting on your face. "What's got you smiling like that, hm?"

 

You shook your head. "Nothing," you pulled your seatbelt across and clicked it secure. "I was just thinking about a funny memory from a long time ago."


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I'm either oversleeping and forget to upload....Or in the middle of work...*facepalm***

 

Taehyung plopped down on his bed and dragged his bag near, taking his camera out to check for scratches. "Looks good," he approved. Turning it on, his eyes went to the battery life. "Eighty-five percent? She really did go through it for a while." Which reminded him.  _'She said she left pictures here?'_

 

He went to his gallery and the first picture he found stretched his brows to the ceiling. "Wha--" His eyes blinked faster. "Why would she leave these here?" He pressed onward and on came another picture of you wearing glasses, seductively posing for the lens. "Seriously..." He raked a hand through his bangs. "What kind of situation is this?" He checked to see if there was more before exiting out and placing the device aside.

 

"What am I supposed to do with those?" he stared at his camera. "I thought she took regular scenery photos but she really meant of herself."

 

 _'But they sure do look nice. She's beautiful. No wonder those two are together. They look perfect for each other.'_  His thoughts began to weigh down his heart like an anchor.  _'Everyone at the cafe is so good looking. And then there's me...'_  He fell back onto his bed and heaved a heavy sigh. "I wish I was handsome, too." At least that way, things would be much easier than now.

 

 

Two days later, after getting brunch before your Friday afternoon shifts, both you and Chaeyoung took a train from the restaurant near her house and walked a few blocks down to reach work.

 

"Oh, I almost forgot to mention." Chaeyoung finished chewing up the rest of her foot roll-up before finishing. "I'm going on a date with someone soon."

 

"With Jaebum?"

 

She turned her nose up to the sky. "Maybe." But the redness of her cheeks said more than she ever could.

 

"Look at you two," you elbowed her arm. "Before I know it, you'll be settling down with a kid or four."

 

"You trying to kill me here?" she looked up and down.

 

You shrugged. "Just being realistic."

 

Chaeyoung clasped her fingers tight and beamed with delight. "He said he was interested in getting to know me a lot more, and asked if I'd let him. Of course, I accepted, and now we're taking a trip to Hongdae this weekend."

 

"I'm happy for you," you started tapping and scrolling through your phone. "Fate's in your favor this time."

 

"Fate?" She cupped her face with both hands. "Stop talking like that."

 

"Hey, do you remember meeting my friend, Woosung?"

 

"Hm?" She took her hands away. "Oh! Oh! The one you said was in a band?" You passed over your phone so she read the conversation left in messages. She gasped, "he's really coming to town?" You nodded happily.

 

"He said if I wanted to get anyone to come with me," you slipped your phone back into your mustard-colored tote purse, "that he'd get our names on the list for the place he's going to be performing at."

 

"I'll go," she pulled open the door to the cafe. "They'll need all the support they can get."

 

"I'm excited to see him," you stepped past her. "It feels like our senior year was such a long time ago. Back then we almost always used to talk about him wanting to become a musician and get his name out there...Now he probably has to wear a mask whenever he steps out."

 

"Hope he doesn't let the fame get to his head when he and his friends get big."

 

"No, Woosung isn't like that." you waved a dismissive hand. "He's more like--" Your gaze swerved to the left of you, finding Taehyung, who stood with his hands clasped in front of him and lips sealed shut. In front of him sat a group of snickering males, 'joking' around and making a jester out of him. One even got up and swiped the glasses right off his face to put them on his own.

 

"Chaeyoung," you adjusted the purse straps further up your shoulder, "I'll meet you in the back in a bit." Before she could even ask anything, you marched down the floor to stand before them with that fearless gaze of yours. "What seems to be the problem here, gentlemen?" The laughter died down, but the grins remained.

 

"Oh, it's you!" The one with Taehyung's glasses didn't waste the chance to scan every inch of you those leering eyes of his. "Problem you say?" he forced his eyes back to yours. "No. Nothing too serious." His eyes slipped back to Taehyung. "You've got me beat though. Why'd you guys hire this clown?" he looked back to you. "Doesn't the owner here only hire hot chicks and dudes?"Taehyung's lips folded and the glare in your eyes only sharpened. "But...since you're asking seriously, I guess there might be one little issue. Nothing that can't be solved in a few seconds."

 

"Oh yeah? And what's that?"

 

"I still haven't gotten your name or number yet, gorgeous." He swung the tip of his glasses round and round, raising Taehyung's fear of it accidentally flinging away and smashing on the floor. "Where're you comin' from? Have you eaten yet?"

 

You waited well until he stopped swinging it to snatch it from his hand. "Where I'm coming from doesn't concern you in the slightest." You handed it over to the anxious male and nodded your head towards the back.

 

He scoffed, folding his arms on the table. "You almost always have this dry look on your face whenever I see you." His gaze sat below your belt. "Am I finally getting you worked up?" He and his friends were too busy snickering to notice his glass of iced Pepsi being snatched up and chucked right into his lap.

 

As he shot up from his seat, the laughter died down, and all eyes were fixed on you. "I'll warn you pigs now. Say or do anything besides order, drink, or eat, and I'll have you thinking twice about coming here again. Understand?"

 

"Fucking bitch!" Before anyone around knew it, he had his fingers curled and dug into the collar of your windbreaker, raking you up close. "You'll make us think twice, huh?"

 

 

From behind the counter, Taehyung had a view that pried his eyes wide open.  _'Bumi!'_  His legs took a turn behind him and pushed open that kitchen door. "Hyung!"

 

 

Your gaze fell to his reddening knuckles. The feeling of your feet rising up to your toes drew a 'tsk' from your lips. "Barbaric fuck." You looked up to him. "I guess messing with a harmless person isn't enough to get you off. Now you're trying to put your hands on a girl. You should be ashamed of yourselves."

 

"Stop running your mouth and try apologizing a little quicker," he raised a hand back past his ear. "And maybe I'll hold back a bit."

 

"I'm not doing shit," you spat. "Monkey-looking bastard. Your breath smells like feces." A nasty sneer grew on your face the longer you had to look, smell, and deal with him. 

 

He snorted. "Oh, really?"

 

"Really." A growling deep voice erupted from behind.

 

The man clicked his tongue. "Mind your own damned business. This is between..." When he lifted his eyes away and behind you, they continued to walk up the human beanstalk towering over you with more menacing features than his own. And beside him, a similar face on a shorter, yet bulkier man.

 

"Let her go," Hoseok said. "Quickly."

 

"You guys work here don't you?" His eyes dodged back and forth between the two and their attire. "Where's your manager? You're gonna need to hire a new employee, becuase--"

 

Hoseok took a menacing step forward. "I said." His hand latched on to the man's wrist. "Let go." The crease in his brow dug deeper into his forehead as the veins running along his forearm printed out onto his skin. Both you, Wooseok and even distant onlookers bore witness to the growing discomfort twisting into the man's face.

 

"Hey!" The entire table took to their feet. "You lookin' to swallow your own teeth today? Let him go!" one barked.

 

Hoseok took a glance over at them, scanning their rugged expression. "Sure," he nodded. "But which one of you is willing to take his place?" Not one of them said a word, and grit their teeth in silence. "No takers?" Not a soul. "Where's the loyalty for your friend here, huh?"

 

"Shit!" His fingers were the first to release. "Okay! Okay!" He jerked his arm back to try and rip his hand away, but failed due to the strong seize Hoseok had over his wrist.

 

You, on the other hand, brushed out the wrinkles of your collar and stepped over to the left side of Hoseok and tilted over, just to bear witness to the unease setting into each stone-hard face.

 

"Now to answer your question about the manager's whereabouts...you're looking right at him." His eyes followed the sudden buckle of his prey's knees. "And our Bumi is one of our best employees, so we won't be changing her anytime soon. But as for you all." His glare weighed down the eyes of the rest of the troublesome group. "I think it's about time you cleared out of this booth."

 

"Gah!" His cry of pain turned heads fast and slow towards their table; even raising a few phones in the process.

 

"This cafe is here to serve our precious customers, not violent scum who raises their hands towards women and carries zero respect for our employees. Why'd you even step out the house today, huh?"

 

"But she started it by throwing my drink on me!"

 

"'She was the one to start it'? Tsk." Hoseok took a big huff of aggravation and snatched the collar of the guy's shirt with as much strength as the other was using for his wrist. "I already heard from the victim himself that you were harassing him and keeping him from working because you had his glasses in your possession. And if I ask Bumi here, what happened, I'm sure she'll confirm his story from her own point of view." His knuckles gradually kneaded into his collarbone. "So don't bullshit me with lies." Now on one knee, Hoseok towered him, refusing to let go. "Because you're only pissing me off even more."

 

"Hyung, just throw them out already," Wooseok said.

 

By the words of his dongsaeng only, Hoseok released the man altogether. "Leave." He hunched over, clutching onto his sore wrist. "And don't come back." With his stern words as a parting, he and Wooseok turned their backs on the group.

 

"Ah, I can't believe I wasted this much time standing around here. I'm gonna go get changed."

 

"Hold on a second, young lady." You did as you were told and took a step back, turning toward him. "I'm glad you're trying to be a hero, but next time, think carefully about what you say and do when it comes to thugs like them. Understood?" He raised a brow, seeing if what he had said had gotten through clear.

 

"Yeah, yeah. I hear ya."

 

"Excuse me." Hoseok turned his head towards the soft feminine voice. "May we get a couple of napkins please." Two girls with sandwiches smiled innocently at him.

 

"Of course." The menace on his face disappeared and reverted to the smiley manager his staff knew him to be. "Just one moment."

 

 

You finally took your leave and sauntered your way towards the swinging door. Though, curiosity suggested you take a short glance in your co-worker's direction before pushing past the it.

 

On your way out, Taehyung stared on until the corner of his eyes could reach no further.  _'I have to say thank you.'_

 

"Taehyung-ah." With the afterthought, Hoseok dropped a hand on his shoulders as he passed behind him. "You did well in coming to tell me about what was going on out here." He pulled open the left cabinet door, that sat under one of the three espresso machines. "I mean, it's common sense that you'd help a woman out in that situation," he reached below for a light stack of napkins sitting neatly among other on the top shelf. "But Bumi and the other girls are like my little sisters." His finger pushed it back closed. "And if those punks would've left even the slightest scratch on her," he stepped back and turned to him with a raised brow. "I would've blamed you big time."

 

Taehyung's fingers dawdled at his sides, while realization anchored his feet to the shiny wooden floor.  _'He's got every right. She was just a second away from getting hit.'_  Despite that radiant confidence and powerful aura that you wore oh so well, you were still a female. One single female that managed to handle those pack of idiots, just for a coward who couldn't do so himself.  _'I need to tell her, thank you.'_

 

The thought of you making it into the locker room, without hearing at least two words of gratitude, didn't seem right with him. So he hefted his feet from their spot and tracked you into the hall with a light jog.

 

Bumi-ssi," he called, stopping you just in time before you got too far down the hallway.

 

The hair on your shoulder slid back behind you as you twisted your head to find the male who called after you. Taehyung stood more than a couple feet away from you, with parted lips and desperation scribbled along his features. Seconds had gone by, and the only thing the kid had done was put his eyes to the floor. 

 

"What?" you asked, trying to pull the words out of him.

 

He lifted his gaze to you once more, this time is fingers fooling around with each other in front of him. "I just wanted to thank you for stepping in for me back there. I appreciate it."

 

You waited until your body stood face to face with his, before telling him, "realistically, you should've stepped in for yourself, but I don't like seeing those idiots, so I did what I did."

 

He nodded. "Right." You definitely weren't wrong about that. "Still...you put yourself in a dangerous situation. And almost got hit! You could've been hurt because of me. I have a lot of gratitude inside of me now."

 

Another few seconds went by until you let out a sigh when his gaze weakened to the wall. "This is how I look at things. If we have a good conversation, have similar tastes and interests, and you seem to be a cool person, you're considered my friend. And I always help my friends."

 

There was a moment when Taehyung's brain failed to register the situation at hand. _'Is she calling me her friend?'_ He didn't know if they equally had a good conversation last night, but the second reason did check out correctly. _'I'm Bumi's friend?'_  Still, how did he jump from being an annoying creep to a friend so suddenly? And then there was the little thing he managed to catch. _'Me? Cool?'_

 

"I'll be honest with you," you started. "Until last night, I've never had someone to talk to about my hobby." As your eyes wandered away to the same wall, his inched back towards you, just in time to bear witness to this new modest form. He even noticed your fingers tips brushing over the straps of your mustard-colored purse. "I'm kinda grateful you decided to speak up when you did." He continued to gape on. "If you don't mind it, we could exchange numbers and talk some more."

 

Taehyung's eyes widened. Exchanging numbers with such a popular person? Such thoughts only existed in his childish imagination. But he managed to close his jaw and save face by nodding. "Sure." Then he shook. "I don't mind."

 

You nodded firmly in return. "Good." You reached into your purse and slipped your phone back out. You entered the pin to your phone and held it for him to take. "Here." He had a good 3 yards to gather his confidence before he grabbed the device, yet there was only hesitation when he did. "Put in your number and call your phone so you can have mine."

 

Taehyung snuck a quick glance up at you from entering his number and his nerves only increased. Once he finished, he handed over your phone and watched an actual, genuine smile rise on your features once you saved the new contact.  _'Cute.'_  Were his exact thoughts.

 

"Alright," You smile faded back into the straight lips from a moment ago. "You can get back to work now." And with that, you left to get changed.

 

Taehung tilted his head at your leaving figure and thought,  _'I still don't get her.'_

 

 

Hours later, after his shift, when he finally reached home to solve some problems for his calculus class, Taehyung's phone went skidding over an inch. When he glanced over a new message lit up his phone. When he saw the name, it felt like his heart went and took a quick dip in the nervous pool. "She's texting me already? I thought she would wait at least a couple days." He picked up his phone to find a simple greeting.

 

 

A simple little greeting and his palms were sweating over which kind he should use to return it.  _'Hi?'_  Stiff.  _'Hello?'_  Way too stiff.  _'Hey?'_  Taehyung took a deep breath and tried to lax his nerves.  _'Calm down. Just be chill.'_  But this was his first time texting a popular girl, so of course, it felt like he was solving the hardest equation of a lifetime. 

 

 

Almost immediately, you replied.

 

 

He went ahead and typed 'homework' but paused before his thumb hit that send button. _'What if the conversation dies after?'_  Especially with a one-word response like that?  _'Oh, I'll just ask her what she's doing.'_

 

 

 

 

 

"Bumi, if you don't start eating, the food's gonna be gone before you know it," the girl warned.

 

You hummed in response but continued to ponder about sending a double text. With your back against the chair for proper posture, leg lapped over the other for personal comfort, you studied the conversation with only your eyes reaching downward.

 

 

"Is that Park Chanyeol you're texting?" Another girl asked with a suggestive tone in her voice. "He looks so much in love with you whenever I see you two. I wish I had someone as handsome as him, but guys like Jiwon oppa are all that's left these days."

 

"Watch your mouth." He elbowed her. "I look damn good." He fit the space between his thumb and index finger perfectly under his chin.

 

You unlapped your leg just to have the other lap it instead. "It's not him," you said. You weren't able to spare even the slightest glance.

 

"Oh..." Her eyes fell to her plate, and her hands dangled the corner of her phone between her thighs. She fished for something else to say until her eyes hit your lips. "I love your lipgloss," she used some leftover pep. That orangey red is so pretty," she noticed.

 

"Thank you," you rang, though your face forgot to follow. You then raked your fingers out through your bangs a couple times. There still wasn't anything worth for you to spare even a few seconds of eye-contact for.

 

 

You then glanced upward and grabbed the neck of your beer bottle, tilting your head back only a bit as the rim kissed your lips. After taking a few gulps, you eased the bottle back on the table and tapped away again.

 

 

You then put your phone to rest beside your plate before moving a couple more side dishes over to it, to shove in your face.  _'Am I being too blunt?'_ A nervous image of him surfaced to your mind.

 

The whole reason you started the conversation was to find a little bit of enjoyment instead of with these group of people who you weren't interested in being associated with. Yes, there was food involved, but if you hadn't begged Youngjae to come along, you would have been even less engaged.

 

"I know she told you to eat, but slow down before you choke," Youngjae said.

 

"Thanks for worrying, but I'm too hungry to worry about that."

 

Five minutes of eating and talking passed by. The company beside you kept pulling on different strings of topics to try and find your interest. A topic or two managed to work, but you kept your attention between your phone and Baekhyun. People who acted over-friendly turned you off completely.

 

 

You raise a brow. You started to type something out, but another reply came to your phone.

 

 

You get that he was nervous, but you also wanted to text him something to calm him down. You didn't want the conversation to end before it became an actual conversation. You had things you wanted to discuss. But before you could, he sent one last message.

 

 

Now you were squinting at the messages with slight annoyance. And so you turned to your good friend. "Baekyun," The male glanced up from the piece of meat that was trying to land in his mouth. "I'm not that intimidating to talk to, am I?"

 

"I don't think you are." The first girl kissed ass with a bright smile. "I was actually excited to get to know you." Anything to get into your relevant book.

 

"Yes," he resumed his hand shoved the piece in his mouth. "Yes, you are. It's that resting-bitch face you got going on. On top of that, you're highly attractive. There's some that wanna get close because they like you. Or just lookin' to kiss ass for a little popularity, like these guys." He nodded to the rest sitting beside you, and they could only look on in disbelief.

 

"Hold on, who's kissing ass here?" One of the girls retorted.

 

"You guys," he answered. "I just said so, didn't I?" He hissed as he tilted his head. People these days are hard of hearing." Jiwon and the two girls either cleared their throat or grumbled with the eyes fixated on their plates.

 

You rolled your eyes. "Whatever."

 

"Can't forget your attitude."


	12. Chapter 12

That night, instead of returning home after dinner, you called and told your parents you were staying over at Chaeyoung's house for the night and made your way to his house to spend some time with him instead. No begging was needed beforehand, just you and your little whim.

 

"Ch--Aah!" Immediately cupping your mouth, you slapped his upper part of his sweaty arm. "Fucking jerk," you cursed him, tucking your fingers under opposite pits to cradle your breasts.

 

Chanyeol hung his head as the snickers slipped through. "Isn't this what you like?" He eased back out and slammed into you, forcing yet another yelp out of you. "Personally, I enjoy it, too," he admitted. But that wasn't the only thing he liked about this moment.

 

The way you cuddled your breasts in your arms and blushed deeper than a ripe tomato, gave him a wallop to the heart. How your hair fanned out against his sheets, and your bangs stuck to your forehead only sent shivers down his sweaty back.

 

Unable to resist the full lips below him, Chanyeol lowered his own to meet with them. Those flutters nearly exploded when you decided not to refuse the sloppy, yet sweet-filled kiss. Then he took a fist off the sheet and slipped his hand underneath your head, intangling his fingers within your damp locks. The warmth radiating off your scalp felt vaguely similar as to what was going on inside his chest.

 

As he lifted  his head away just a bit, his thrusts turned rather lively. Whimpers fell from your lips and slowly broke apart the kiss. Erratic breaths huffed through your lips and your face scrunched whenever he reached a little deeper than before.

 

"Chanyeol-ah! Bumi-ah!" Both your eyes shot open when the call of his mom interrupted. "Everything okay?" she knocked. "I heard Bumi scream from the kitchen."

 

"Yes!" you said. "I just..." you looked to him. "Stubbed my toe! On the desk chair."

 

"Twice?"

 

Chanyeol turned his head away as he huffed lowly chuckles. "I scared her with a fake bug the second time," he stepped in to help.

 

"Poor dear," she said. "Don't scare her anymore," she scorned him. "What're you doing with something like that in here? Bumi dear, be careful next time, okay? You're not bruised or bleeding, are you?"

 

"I'm all good, thank you." In the silence, you could hear the footsteps moving further away. From the door, back to each other, you sighed. You felt his facial features sink into the crease of your neck, and ended up recognizing that grin of his. You were surer of what he was doing when you noticed the small shakes of his shoulders. "Not funny."

 

He tilted his lips to the smile and planted a smooch right where his nose was. "Yes, it is."

 

 

After you finished drying your hair, you sat on the bottom of his bed, legs folded as you scrolled mindlessly through Instagram. First, you scrolled through pictures of yourself on Chanyeol's page, then some stuff on your homepage to see if there was anything posted to make you laugh. But while searching for humorous material, your eyes widened at the flyer staring back at you. A flyer for a museum? One you hadn't gone too as yet.

 

When Chanyeol stepped into his room again, he was rubbing his towel along his forehead, sideburns, and above his nape to get all the extra damp parts. He then plopped himself down beside you and snaked his arms around your waist, pulling you in just a little. "Watcha looking at?" He found comfort for his chin right on your shoulder, just so he could be nosy.

 

"Nothing much." You scrolled past it, just to make it seem like a casual pitstop.

 

There wasn't any conversation to be had yet; just the two of you staring at whatever you paused on to check out. There were chuckles and one-word comments to some of the posts on your homepage, but nothing to kickstart a conversation. 

 

Minutes later, Chanyeol lost interest in your homepage and decided to stare down at his floor instead. "Hey." You hummed. But the words didn't come to right away. "You uh...you think you can tutor me for this test I got comin' up in a couple of days?"

 

"Sure."

 

With your one-worded response, either dove back into silence for the next minute. That wasn't what he really wanted to ask. There was something more. "Also..." he started. "Since we're official now," he glanced upward. "You wanna have our first official date?" He lifted his chin from your shoulder and gazed upon you with the sweetest smile he could muster etched across his lips, despite his nervousness. "We went out a couple of times before, but you never let me call them a date."

 

You kept your eyes to the screen, asking, "and do what?" You didn't really care, but you did also have to put some effort into this whole idea of a relationship. It was the very least you could do.

 

"Actually, I thought you'd wanna choose." His hand eased out onto your thigh. "You never really tell me the places you want to go to hang out." He pushed his lips into your cheek

 

_'That's because you think they're boring.'_

 

Chanyeol scooted himself away so he'd enough space to lay his head down across your lap. There wasn't much space for the rest of his body, but he gave up on comfort and let the rest of himself hang just for the sake of gazing. He then pushed your hand down out of the way from his view and told you to, "look at me."

 

Your eyes finally fell on him just to find him doing what you already suspected he was doing: staring right up at you in pure awe. His orbs swam around every corner to analyze every feature that amplified a ruckus in your heart. If eyes were capable of shapeshifting into hearts, they definitely would have done so by now.

 

You swapped your phone into your left hand and smoothed the palm of your right up his supple cheek. Your thumb stretched back and forth over it, your line of vision going to from there, to his chin, lips, nose and then eyes. Even his elf-like ears that shared a similarity in size with your own.  _'He's one handsome kid, that's for sure.'_

 

His fingertips slid up the back across your knuckles, wedged them into the spaces between yours and held it in place. Then he turned his face into your palm with shutting lids and exhaled through his nostrils. "How's this Sunday sounding?"

 

"If we're not swamped with homework and our schedules match up, then I don't see why not."

 

He twisted his neck back to look at you. "You got anything in mind?"

 

You went silent for a few seconds, hesitation sitting on your head until you finally let it go with a sigh and spoke. "There's this art museum that I saw on Instagram." Already, the sweetness from his smile began to shrink. "If you gave one a try, you'd see how interesting they actually are."

 

Chanyeol's hand fell to his chest. "Come on, you know I don't like going to those kinds of places. You have to keep your voice low the entire time, the exhibits are weird, and they're just so--"

 

"Boring," your brows creased. "I know that."

 

He sighed. "Don't give me that look."

 

Your face continued to scrunch up. Eyebrows knitting closer, frown dragging further, and nose on the edge of flaring. As soon as you stood up, Chanyeol went crashing to the ground, back first. Instead of checking if he was okay, you stepped over him and went to his desk, pulled open the top drawer to the left and snatched up his box of cigarettes and his lighter.

 

He hissed, as he rocked over to his side, and pushed himself up from the forearm. "Bumi," he groaned. "Don't be mad."

 

"Who said I was mad?" You scraped his burgundy bomber jacket from off the back of the desk, shoving your arms through and adjusting it to your comfort with a couple tugs and yanks.

 

"Then why'd you throw me overboard like that?" Chanyeol picked himself up and went to your side. "And where do you even think you're going?"

 

You flipped his hood and walked towards the door. "Outside for a smoke."

 

"Come on, we can go someplace else for our first date." He followed behind. "Someplace memorable and fun. Or maybe I can take you to get pampered. We could eat at a nice restaurant and--"

 

You ripped open the door and let it swing out past you. "Go find something to choke on real quick so I can smoke in peace." You grabbed the doorknob once again and slammed it shut behind you.

 

Chanyeol sighed.  Following the aggressive slam, he listened to your steps make it down the hallway before he banged his head against the door.

 

"Mrs. Park, I'm going to the store real quick!" Is what you had told her, since she had the same amount of tolerance for smoking as your parents did. She asked if her son was going with you, but you made up an excuse saying that he was in the shower and walked through the door. Once a block away from the house, you lit up a cigarette immediately.

 

This guy who claimed to care so much about you, chased after you relentlessly, and wanted nothing but your time, had not even the smallest fraction of interest in your interests. An all around good guy to people he cared for, yet something was still off.

 

 _'What's wrong with going to a museum, huh?'_  You puffed in thought. Absolutely nothing. Lots of couples did it. Then again, lots of couples respected each other's interests in the first place, no matter what. But when it came to the topic of art in itself, all interest was no longer up for grabs. 

 

Were you only supposed to stay just the way you are? The hard to approach woman that he managed to snag in the end from sheer hard work? The thought made your chest wriggle with discomfort. If it weren't for Chaeyoung you wouldn't have dated him in the first place.

 

Just how long was 'a while'? A few months? A year? Until your graduation? Any guy could come into your life and give you so much of their time and devotion, take you out tons of dates, pleasure you senseless into the morning, and only ask for a relationship at the table, but it was going to take something really special, someone unique to could get your heart running on the word 'love'.

 

In the end, it had you asking yourself,  _'Was getting in a relationship with him really a good idea?'_  You tapped at the stick to drop the sitting ashes.

 

But then another thought wandered over your mind.  _'Maybe I'm just acting like a brat, instead of a proper adult.'_  No relationship was perfect, and certainly not any person. Maybe if you held out just a bit longer, unveil a side to him that would make you stay. After all, out of all the guys that have tried their luck, Chanyeol was the one you had the most chemistry with.


	13. Chapter 13

You chose not to see Chanyeol for the rest of the weekend, yet expected to find him during your late shift on Monday. When Chanyeol texted you to see if you wanted to be picked up, you left him on read and took the train to work. Your plan was to make him feel guilty before forgiving him. After all, arguing for just wasn't your style.

When you got to the cafe, the place was slightly busy. You greeted Daniel and Chanwoo with a wave and a little smile. Even a few regulars got a wave from you. The moment you pushed open the door to the kitchen, the corner of your eyes found the large back of your boyfriend.

It didn't take him long to notice that someone had come in; so when he turned, his feet took off in a hurry, coming to a screeching halt at the doorway. "Not so fast.

You rolled your eyes to the ceiling and told him, "you're in the way."

"We need to talk." The furrow in his brow, the slight frown in his lips, you could tell how regretful he was feeling for upsetting you. If they could, his ears would've been drooped over as well. "About Friday night--"

"Stop with the dramatics," you told him. "I'm over it already."

"But our date."

"Choose wherever the hell you want. It doesn't matter anymore."

"You're definitely not over it."

You were supposed to be, but thinking and actually doing were two different things.

After folding your arms, Chanyeol reached his fingers out for your cheek, but got denied with a swift smack. With a heaved sigh, he took double hold of your head and brought you closer. "Listen to me, okay?" he widened his eyes. "Please?"

You looked to either of his arms before squinting back at him and warning him. "You've got thirty seconds."

He rolled his eyes with a short huff and began to speak. "I'm sorry about getting you upset the other night, but I know just the place that'll make you love me again.."

"Fifteen seconds."

His face twisted. "Are you even counting prop--"

"Ten!"

"Hongdae!" You raised a brow. "You wanna go? We could visit a dog cafe and have lunch, and then we could go to the Artbox."

The second the suggestions finished passing through his lips, the tension in your brows ceased to exist. "...I'll go." Didn't take you long to fall prey to your love of cute things and dogs.

The smile on his face returned soon enough. "Okay." A hand slid down off your head to pick up your chin. "This Sunday then?"

"Mm. Sunday." And all it took was some of your favorite things to get on your good side again.

"Good evening." The voice turned your head and lifted Chanyeol's.

"Evening," your eyes followed Taehyung's awkward figure to where you both stood.

"Excuse me," he peaked over at Chanyeol for only a mere second before letting his eyes fall to the door frame.

Your brows furrowed while he still continued to stand there as if he was security. "Are you deaf?" You grabbed Chanyeol's shirt and pulled him closer to you so he could have at least a bit of space to squeeze through.

When he passed, Chanyeol's arms snuck their way around your ass. "I still don't get why your uncle accepted to hire him. I get that he's good at working, but come on..."

Your hands sat on his arms just for a moment before shoving them away. "Whatever the real reason is, shouldn't hinder your work performance in the slightest."

"Ooh," he chuckled. "Loud and clear, sunbae." Since you worked here long before he came. "Go get changed now." He pressed his lips against your forehead.

You stepped right on past him and didn't forget to leave him with that sassy attitude he couldn't get enough of. "I'll flick you the next time you try telling me what to do."

When the door swung back closed, you greeted your uncle and left to go get changed.  _'I guess I'll see about the museum another day.'_  A day when you weren't tired and time favored you again. Hopefully, a day like that would come soon.

However, when you got halfway down the hall, your steps slowed down until they were no more.  _'Wait a second...'_  An idea came to mind. An idea that had you turn back, tiptoe under your uncle's supervision, dip under the kitchen door's window, all just to jog over to the boy's locker room.

You then gave the door a double knock and waited until it was opened by a wide-eyed guy with only a single sound to utter.

"Wh--"

"Hey, do you wanna go to an art museum with me?"

He blinked twice over until realization stole his breath and his eyes fell to his fully exposed chest and striped boxers. Taehyung then sprung behind the door, with only half his head peaking past the door.

Confusion easily put a squint in your eyes and left you to ask, "why're you hiding?"

"Becuase I'm half naked and I didn't expect you to be standing outside the door." Which was a valid reason. "Why are you here?"

"I wanted to see if you wanted to come with me to an art museum. It'd give me a chance to talk with you some more, and a chance for you to handle talking to me."

"Uh..." He blinked his gaze down to the floor.  _'She's inviting me to a museum?'_  Despite the horribly boring conversation they had over text a few nights ago?

"You don't wanna?"

He looked up. "N-no," he shook his head and hand to try and clear up what misunderstanding you had. "That's not it. It's just that I'm worried about talking to you. When you texted me, I was overthinking the entire time about what to say, and if you'd get bored with me, and..." he breathed a shaky sigh. "I was nervous. I'm even kinda nervous right now."

Taehyung's short ramble left you blinking up at him until a little smile and chuckle left you.

 _'She's laughing?'_  But what a cute sound it was to his ears.

"What's with you? You were so passionate the other night about photography and our majors and stuff, but now you're like this?" He pressed his lips together. "Don't shit your pants over trying to say the right things to please me. Just having someone to talk to about what I like pleases me more than enough, so just talk to me like before." Taehyung nodded once and gave you half a smile.

"So, are you up to coming along?"

"...Okay," he said. "When?"

"I'll text you after work and we can pick a date when we're both off. Is that okay?" you raised a brow.

"Mm," he nodded once more.

Though the word 'text' brushed against his nerves a little, a small wave of excitement wafted over you and kept you smiling all the way back down to the girl's locker room.

 

A few days breezed pass and Friday came back around like nothing had happened. No classes were active, and neither of you was scheduled for work. Throughout the week, you texted him the bare minimum to set a time, whether to meet and go there together, or just meet there at the museum itself.

"Bumi-ssi," Taehyung raised a weak hand from his camera when he found you. "Hi." He watched as you closed in on him, hands tucked away in your jacket pockets as you crossed the street to get to him. "You made it." His eyes immediately took sight of the two little buns that sat atop your head, away from the rest of your flowing mane.

"'Course I did. I woke up at 9 and couldn't fall back asleep after that. But," you sized him up and down. "When'd you get here?"

"I think it's been about 20 minutes now."

"You should've waited inside the building. It might be getting warmer, but it's still kinda chilly outside."

"I thought about that, but I didn't want you to think that I wasn't here, yet."

You lifted a brow. "I could've just texted you to see where you were if that was the case."

Taehyung nodded. "Right..."

You couldn't help to notice his beloved camera hanging from his neck and sitting comfy in his palms. "I guess you'll be taking a bunch of pictures then?" You walked past him and pulled open the door.

He trailed behind you, trying not to fall behind. "It'd be a bit of a waste if I didn't."

The two of you paid for your tickets and got started on your self-tour. The first stops you made had your eyes wide and studying everything about it. Who the artist was, pondering about what the artist could've been thinking when they created it, just trying to wrap your head around it in general.

"Look," you pointed. "It's like some kind of game room." The huge dice floating and pawn-like pieces around them. "Oh, look! There's so many of them." Each individual doll had its own colored circle with different clothes and headpieces, posed in their own way. "They're so cute." In the next room you found, "cows?" you walked all around them, yet careful as to not brush up against them. "Interesting..." Here and there, Taehyung would respond to your statements from awe, but for the most part, kept his mouth shut.

Wherever you went, he followed close behind after snapping pictures of whatever seemed to usher him over. However, whenever he would look up from his camera, at least 2 people were staring in you guys direction. Then he'd see whispers whenever he would follow. It made him feel nervous, small even. He had almost forgotten about the dazzling woman walking around with him, and the kind of presence you left behind in each room.  _'Let's try and stay focused on the exhibits,'_  he told himself.  _'At least I don't have to worry about Bumi-ssi. She seems to be in her own world.'_ Which was an interesting sight to say the least.

Down the wide and black stairs, you went, but you couldn't forget to observe the large wooden car parked on the side of the wall. It was shaped like one, yet had too many holes going through it to be used like one.

Looking back for the first time in a while, you heard the sound of the camera saving yet another photo to its gallery. Without looking your way, he stepped down the remaining black stairs and aimed his lens up from below. "Um, Bumi-ssi," he moved his head over.

"My bad," you stepped down quick and out of his way. Curiosity moved your feet near him until you stood right beside him, watching him, observing the way he tilted and aimed the camera for a fitting take. But you guessed your presence wasn't masked enough, since his gaze started inching over in your direction. When you met eyes with him, you just blinked at him, but your forehead became puckered watching him slide a step away from you. "Do I stink or something?" you asked, slightly offended.

"No way," he shook his head, managing to still take the shot. "Your presence is still kind of...just a bit overwhelming." He took the camera down from his face and peaked in our direction.

You could only turn away at such behavior. "What a kid."

"Wait!" Taehyung jogged to keep up with your fast pace, following you into a room with pictures of characters and object, framed on the wall. It all looked like something worth saving to his gallery, so he stood on the left side of the piece, and raised his camera.  _'I hope she's not mad,'_  he hoped. Just before his finger pressed that button, his gaze went over and found you just staring at them all. "Bumi-ssi," he called for you.

"What?"

"Do you want to try taking a shot?"

"Oh," your brows raised. "You'll actually let me hold your precious camera?" You plodded over to him. "Even after I stole it?"

"Sure," he swung his head out from the strap and passed it over to you. "We're friends, aren't we?" His coy smile put a curve in yours.

You huffed air through your nose. "That's more like it," you said. You then took the camera from him and positioned it to your eye. "I wonder if I can take professional ones like you." You started moving to the left to get to the very center again. Then you took a few steps back until your back hit the opposite wall, but took one step forward for comfort. "How do I zoom in and out?"

Taehyung went to stand right at your side. "It's simple," His slender fingers pulled the camera down a bit to demonstrate how to adjust the device. "You just turn this knob on the top left and right..."

 _'He's got pretty hands for a guy,'_  you thought.

"Give it a go."

When Taehyung stepped away, you raised the camera back to the frames and waited for a good focus to take the shot. "How's this?" You passed over his camera and watched him study the image up close.

"It's not a bad shot, for a beginner," he turned to you with an approving smile. "Do you want to take more?"

"Keep it for now. I'll let you know when I want a turn."

"Should we keep going then?" His thumb pointed towards another way out. "We've got a lot more to see."

Almost every artwork you saw, called for your turn, and Taehyung happily gave it to you. He was even happy enough to give our pointers for a better angle. By the time you finished going around the museum, your bellies were calling to be filled.

"I guess we should head home now," he said.

"Shouldn't we get something to eat before that?" You pulled open the front door and held it for him as you passed through.

"Where?"

You walked out to the very edge of the property and stopped. "The map says there's a place around here. "Do you want to go?"

"Sure."

After the two of you finished ordering, you scrolled through your page with your fist in cheek and slightly lidded eyes. On the opposite side, Taehyung flipped through all the pictures either of you took throughout our time in the museum.

As your eyes flashed upward for a quick glance, you found his growing smile. You then pressed your phone to sleep and turned it face down in front of you. "Today was fun."

Taehyung raised his gaze over his glasses. "Mm," he pushed the frames further up his nose. "It was," he nodded. "Thank you for inviting me."

"It's no big deal. Going by myself wouldn't have been as fun."

"Do you usually go to museums like this by yourself?"

"When I have time in between work, schoool, and socializing."

"But why go alone when you can just go with your friends?" he blinked. "Or Chanyeol even?"

You watched your thumb rub against the smooth top corner of your case before answering. "This kind of setting isn't their thing. Especially his. It's not exciting enough for 'em." You looked up again. "That's why I asked you instead. You did say that you liked art, so I took my chance."

"Well," both index fingers rubbed the sides of his camera. "If you don't have anyone to go with next time," his fingers wiped at either side of the camera. "I don't mind going with you."

Your thumb paused. "Next time?" Your brow raised in following.

"Well...That's only if you want me to...of course."

The ends of your lips began to curl as a short chuckle came through your nose. "Sure. Let's make plans to do this again sometime."

Taehyung nodded again, his eyes wandering down to this camera. Unlike the first week of getting to know you, seeing you smile eased him out little by little.  _'Things are going well.'_  And to think up until last week, the thought of just being around you used to get him nervous. Not only nervous, but scared. Especially scared during that one week when Chanyeol helped to give a bad impression of himself to you and everyone else at the cafe.

"Uh, Bumi-ssi." You hummed. "About that time I accidentally pushed you down at the door... "I'm really sorry about that. I didn't mean to. I had a hot candy in my mouth and was in a rush to wash my mouth.."

"Why would you eat something you knew you couldn't handle?"

"I was kinda forced to eat it."

"By Chanyeol?" you asked.

He finally looked up. "How did you know?"

"Becuase unless it's people he hangs out with on regular, he treats certain people like shit for his own amusement. Even Chanwoo gets his share from time to time." Which brought you back to another point. "You said that letter to Chaeyoung wasn't from you, so it must've had something to do with him, too." You clicked your tongue. "He's so fucking immature." The sneer on your lip wouldn't let down. "You think adulthood would mature someone, but clearly he's one of those few who don't get the picture already."

"Wait," his eyes widened slightly. "I'm not telling you this to mess up your relationship. I just wanted to clear up any misunderstanding from before."

"I get that, but I'm still gonna talk to him." Your back hit the chair with a thump. "Neither of you have done anything to him, so he has no excuse except for wanting to be an asshole." Your arms crossed over your chest. "I bet things must've been worse back then unlike now, but I promise he won't be messing with you two anymore once I'm finished with him."

He shook his head. "You-you're not thinking of breaking up with him, are you?"

"No." You raised a brow. "Why's that a concern for you though?"

"If you're going to talk to him, please don't mention me. I wouldn't want to get him angry for real." He was already a target when Chanyeol wasn't in a bad mood.  _'I don't want to imagine what kind of shit I'd be in if he found out I had something to do with this by her breaking up with him.'_  A broken nose? Jaw?  _'For a woman like Bumi, I'd probably get my ribs broken.'_

Your forehead creased as you onced him over. "I get how you'd be scared about upsetting your bully, but don't be a little bitch about it." His lips parted as he stared on in awe. "You've got nothing to worry about, especially since I'm in your defense now." He swallowed. "But still, you're gonna have to learn to stand up for yourself real soon. Having a girl do it for you isn't a good look good on your part. Before you know it, you'll have more than Chanyeol to worry about if others start noticing."

Taehyung's neck hung heavy. "I'll try." But it wasn't going to be easy.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Just for those of you who don't know, Young Ho is Johnny's (NCT) Korean name.**

 

"Taehyung!" The tall male's legs carried him fast and far, and his large hands gripped securely around his camera bag straps. "Sorry, I'm so late." His steps got heavier as he neared him. "My bus was in traffic for some time." His hands fell to his knees. "So I got off and ran the rest of the way," he huffed then swallowed a few times to try regaining the moisture back in his throat.

 

"Don't worry about it, Young Ho," Taehyung reached into the side of his bag and pulled the water bottle from the cap. "Here, drink this."

 

"Thanks, buddy," he squinted up past his damp locks and reached out for it. Young Ho, quickly uncapped the bottle and chugged it until not a drop was left.

 

Taehyung chuckled. "All good?"

 

"Mm," he stood tall once more. "Thanks again. Should we get started and see what we can find?"

 

"Maybe you should take a five-minute breather from that sprint you just took. There're some benches over there." On the other side of the fountain, a couple of empty ones stood ready for sitting. "You can catch your breath and set up while we're at it."

 

He raised his thumb. "Good idea."

 

The following day was planned out to take time to figure out what it was that the two of them were going to take pictures of for their photography major. The task for the class was to take dual photos of what the young males depicted to be 'life', and make a presentation on it to present to the class. All of this to be due within two and a half weeks. Their pictures could have been of anything, nature, people, things, places. Whatever.

 

"Taehyung-ah, you've got to get a load of this gorgeous woman I found not too long ago. Most of her uploads give this kind of laidback vibe and I can't get enough. And she's got a large following too." Young Ho pushed his phone close to his face. "Her name's--"

 

"Oh, it's Bumi-ssi." Taehyung's eyes only passed over a few of your chic photos before they were snatched out his view.

 

"You follow her too?" His eyes kept wide. "Since when?"

 

He shook his head down to his camera. "I don't. I know her."

 

"Stop pulling my leg," Young Ho hooked his arm around Taehyung's neck and pulled him close. "You really know her? From where? How?" The more questions, the tighter the grip.

 

"From work!" Taehyung squeezed his eyes shut and bore his teeth in pain as he tried pealing his arm away. "She's a co-worker of mine."

 

"No way," he finally loosened his grip. "You seriously know her?" he looked back to his phone, eyes scanning the screen.

 

"I see you have your energy back," he stood up. "That means we can get started."

 

Young Ho grabbed his bag and camera from either side of him and stood up with him. "Do you think you can you introduce me to her?"

 

Taehyung sighed. "What's the point? She has a boyfriend already."

 

"Yeah, but we could be friends. Or acquaintances!"

 

Taehyung, having enough of his friend's nonsense, walked on ahead and left the male to stand there. "I'm leaving first."

 

All around the town the two searched for inspiration. Young Ho would throw out photos, but Taehyung failed to see the direct opposites between the two. When he tried to share shots of his own, it fell out of taste with Young Ho. The two walked blocks, for hours, but the only thing Taehyung managed to get pictures of was scenery for his own personal collection.

 

 _'At least I'm getting something.'_  Not so much for his class though.

 

Young Ho then turned to suggest, "maybe we could go to a museum and hope to find some stuff there?"

 

"Eh," he shrugged. "If anything that would make our lives more difficult."

 

"Yeah, but taking pictures of the streets doesn't seem like it's helping us out much." By this time, they were walking around with heavy feet, sore necks, and nearly depleted energy.

 

"We just haven't found a match to what we've already got," The corners of Taehyung's lips pulled slightly up for him to try keeping optimistic with. But, within due time, both males' stomachs were growling and scratching alike.

 

"Well, I'm not going to get anywhere on an empty tank. You just as hungry as I am?"

 

"Now that you mention it," Taehyung put a hand over his pinching insides. "I could go for lunch right about now." He then observed the area to see if there was someplace they could sit to stuff their faces, but there were only buildings, streets, and stores in the vicinity. One road, in particular, looked pretty familiar.

 

"Hey, the map's picking up a cafe not too far from where we are." He zoomed in closer to the area. "Now that I'm getting a good look at it, I think a couple friends of mine go to this place a lot. You wanna go?"

 

"Sure," he nodded.

 

Young Ho fists bumped the air. "Let's go eat!"

 

Taehyung followed him down the familiar block and realized where it was they were.  _'Don't tell me that we're headed for...'_

 

"This is the place."

 

Taehyung stopped and looked to his left. "Oh man..." Then peaked over at his beaming peer.

 

"I'm excited," he grabbed the golden handle. "I heard good things about this place and it's pastries."

 

He could only hope that you weren't on shift at the moment. Not only would walking into his job without needing to work be awkward but if Young Ho were to find out that you worked here, he probably would disturb the peace of the cafe. He had a bit of tendency to become a bit flirtatious when it came to pretty women. He's witnessed it one too many times already.

 

"Young Ho-ah," he followed behind him. "Maybe we should order and go." his head switched from left and right in search of co-workers.

 

"What for? I wanna sit and enjoy the place," he took a nice, long inhale. "Smell that delicious coffee? A cup or two of that and we'll be up and running around better than when we started."

 

Taehyung scanned the registers. To his left was Daniel, and to the right of him stood,  _'Bumi-ssi!'_  And of course there wasn't anyone in front of you, so Young Ho went straight towards the woman with zero customers.

 

"Hi there," he said.

 

When you looked up, a little smile came with you. "Good afternoon--" Your face froze at the sight of the two side by side poles, scanning the stranger and your co-worker right after.

 

By the time his brain finished registering the face before him, his eyes were already peeled. "Wait a second," Young Ho quickly reached down into his pocket for his phone, and went tapping and scrolling through his Instagram just to be sure of what he was seeing. "Are--are you 'Bumi'?"

 

You looked back over to him. _'What the hell?'_  This wasn't the first time someone had recognized you off of social media, but it wasn't a common thing either. You glanced to Taehyung, again who was holding up his hung head with a cupped hand to his forehead. "Yes, that's me." Your eyes were narrowed by the time they got back to the fanboy.

 

"I started following you on Instagram a couple of weeks ago." He shook his head in awe. "You're even more gorgeous in person than your pictures," he clutched his chest. "Simply unreal."

 

"Oh, hey, Taehyung-ssi."

 

He turned to Daniel and waved back just a little. "Young Ho, hurry up and order so we can go sit down and get out of her hair."

 

"Oh yeah, you're right. He laid his elbow to rest on the counter. "So, what's the best the thing on the menu that you could recommend? Or maybe there's a special going on today? " His cocky features were what annoyed you the most. The wiggle of his brows, the smirk stretched across his face. Even the way he raked his fingers through his drear bangs.

 

Taehyung could see the annoyance on your face, clear as day, evolving into anger. "Ah, Young Ho," he grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him away and pushed him towards an empty table. "I'll order for the both of us. It's on me."

 

"Oh, really?" He clapped a hand on Taehyung's shoulder and nodded. "You're a true friend, Taehyung-ah." Then he turned to you and said, "It was nice meeting you, Bumi-ssi. I'll definitely come back after today." He couldn't stop waving, even on his way to sit.

 

"Ah," Taehyung's forced and nervous chuckle brought your attention back. "What to order..."

 

 

Later on, after your shift, your night was spent with a group of your friends, over at Nayeon's house, who lived alone. A few days in advance, a bunch of you made plans to get together when work, studying, and exhaustion wasn't a problem. Some from work and school, came over to hang out that evening to play games, drink a little booze, and talk about the latest gossip and news inside the university.

 

Everyone sat around a large, white, rectangular table fit for the floor, with beer cans and plates spilled with sauce, rice, and other evidence of food, littered the wooden surface. Each one of you sat on black pillows to cushion your bottoms from the hard floor, continuing to chat the night away with your stuffed bellies.

 

"I never thought I'd be sitting here with you guys." The young male's eyes roamed around the room at everyone present. 

 

"Why?" you asked. "A friend of Doyoung is a friend of mine. You know if you're alone and don't find him, you can always come looking for me or Chaeyoung to hang with."

 

The sweet male started blinking back his bashfulness, but his cheeks gave him away just as much. "There're people here and there in my classes who talk about you guys from time to time, sunbae. Nothing bad," he shook his head. "Just, how dazzling you are close-up. And it's true."

 

You couldn't help but smile at his smile. "How cute," you pinched and shook his cheek. "Look at your dimples," you poked a side. "Call me noona from now on, okay?"

 

He let out a nervous chuckle, holding his cheek as he nodded. "Yes, noona."

 

You couldn't forget to ask Doyoung to bring his cute little hoobae, Jungwoo, to come and hang out. You seemed to find him around your friend half the time and wanted to get to know him. But he looked a little lonely whenever you did see him by himself as if he didn't have any friends just yet.

 

"Jungwoo-ah!" Baekhyun walked over and wiggled himself down between you and him in the little semi-circle created in the middle of Nayeon's living room floor. "Let me read your palms for a sec!"

 

You rolled your eyes immediately. "Here we go."

 

"Shut it." Baekhyun took his hand and shoved you from the arm with enough force to actually sending you knocking over into Doyoung.

 

You squinted with your lips parting wider in awe. You then pushed yourself up from the ground and hooked an arm around his neck, whispering, "I should kill you," you wrapped your hands around his neck, and squeezed a little.

 

"Do it after I read the kid's  future." With big expectant eyes, he then asked, "can I?" While reaching out for the younger's hands. "Don't you want to know what kind of life you're going to have later on?

 

"He's talking out his ass, Jungwoo-ah," Daniel giggled as he reached for some chips.

 

Jungwoo looked from Daniel and back to the hyung in front of him. He didn't want to refuse him, especially when he was like this, so he nodded once and held out a hesitant palm for him to see.

 

Wooseok took himself a mouthful from his can of beer and turned to both Daniel and Nayeon. "Hyung, noona," he started. "Those assholes from a few weeks ago showed up to the cafe recently and started messing with the new hyung."

 

"Taehyung?" Daniel he raised a brow. "Why?" he then looked to you. "Bumi wasn't around instead?"

Your arm fell from Baekhyun's neck and dangled on top of his shoulder. "Chaeyoung and I had just got there in the middle of it, but I stepped in to deal with them. I hate those jackasses."

 

Nayeon's brows narrowed. "Was Hoseok oppa or one of the other guys there to take care of them?" She asked, glancing between you and Wooseok.

 

You looked across the table at her. "Wooseokie and Hoseok oppa came to help before he land a hit.

 

"She was already grabbed up by the collar by the time we got there."

 

Her eyes went wide. "Where the hell were you two all that time then?" She looked to him. "And what kind of shit were you talking to end up like that?" She turned back to you.

 

You threw your next arm over Baekhyun's shoulder and clasped your fingers together. "I poured his soda on him and he threw a tantrum," you shrugged. "Big whoop. He was running his mouth too freely."

 

"So basically, what you're saying is," Baekyun started. "Is that this Taehyung guy's balls were cowering in a corner while yours were front and center." He looked over from Jungwoo's palms and over his shoulder. "Did I get all that right?"

 

"He's a fuckin' pussy and then has the nerve to be a creep on top of it." Nayeon sat back on both arms. "I don't like him. At all."

 

"I'm back." After taking a quick leak, Chanyeol stepped back into the living room and stood right behind you, looking over everyone. "What're we talking about now?" he asked.

 

"Unnie, didn't I tell you already? It wasn't him who wrote that letter to Chaeyoung?"

 

"Come on." He walked around to have a seat beside Nayeon. "He totally did." He folded his legs and reached over the table to turn the mouth of the chip bag in his direction. "He even told the three of us," he made a sharp triangle pointing to himself and his co-workers, "that he liked her."

 

"He didn't say that he liked her," Wooseok waved a hand to dismiss the lie. "He just said he thought she was the prettiest. Nothing more. Nothing less."

 

"How does that make the situation any better?" Nayeon asked.

 

"Yeah, but...I don't think he did it either," Daniel looked to her. "He looks like an innocent guy." He rested his elbow down on his knee and held up his head. "I doubt he'd harm a fly much less go after one of our girls."

 

Nayeon raised a brow. "You're really gonna believe him just because he said he didn't?" She rolled her eyes. "That's how people like him fool others like us. They put up a nice front and get close to you until the day you least expect it, and they start pulling shit like that on you. Before you know it, you've got yourself a stalker."

 

"I didn't find any evidence for anything like that. And he really doesn't look like the type. Besides, I already know the person who had something to do with it." Your gaze slid over to the person beside her in particular. "You have anything you wanna say?" Daniel, Wooseok, Doyoung, Jungwoo, and Baekhyun followed your gaze right back to Chanyeol and his buffered reaction.

 

"Like what?" he blinked.

 

"Don't play dumb with me. I know you had something to do with that stupid letter to Chaeyoung and framed it on Taehyung."

 

Nayeon turned her head to him and pointed. "That was you?" She clicked her tongue and groaned. "You son of a--" She cupped her forehead I've gotta go up to him and apologize to get away from my guilty conscious." Her hand rested on the space of the floor behind her to finish holding her up again.

 

Chanyeol rolled his eyes and huffed. "It was just a little joke."

 

"A joke that could've gotten him fired. Do you actually think before you do something stupid?" The room ran into a wall of dead silence at the rise of your voice. Even Jungwoo was blinking down at his lap from awkwardness.

 

"So what do you want me to do?" he swung an arm out. "It was already a while ago." His hand slapped back down on the table. "We're all over it."

 

"I don't want you to do anything, except act your age. You're an adult in college, not some child back in high school. And you know me well enough to know that immature men are an extreme turnoff."

 

Everyone in the room either turned their heads or took a sip of their beers, just to give Chanyeol a second to wallow in embarrassment.

 

The irritated make rolled his eyes away onto the kitchen. "I got it. Chill out already." 

 

With your back turned to him, you took up your beer can and took a mouthful, and put it down to pick up your phone.

 

_'How the heck does she even know it was me?'_

 

Daniel took the few seconds of quietness to raise his hand and ask, "Right, so who wants to play the Nunchi game* now?"

 

**A/N*(2): The Nunchi game is a drinking, (or can be played without drinking) where each player must call out a number starting from 1. If two more people call out the same number, they must drink.**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Mujigae-tteok* - Rainbow rice cake**

**Baekseoulg-tteok* - White steamed rice cake.**

 

"Hey," you called for Taehyung as he passed by you to clock in at the register beside you. "What was all that when you came in with that tall weirdo yesterday?"

He paused from tapping on the screen and looked to you. "You mean Young Ho?" He took the roll of your eyes as a yes. "I'm sorry about his behavior," he looked back to the screen and finished clocking in. "We were walking around the area all day, trying to find some inspiration for our project, but we got hungry. So when we were looking around for a place to eat, he insisted that we come here."

"A project?" You cocked a rather curious brow. "For your major?" you asked.

He nodded, "yes."

"What're you looking for exactly?" You collapsed your arms onto the counter and propped your head up from the elbows.

"Well, anything, really," Taehyung's eyes dipped down into the small arch in your back, over the curve of your butt, and onto your clothed thigh. "Our professor gave our entire class the theme of 'life'. He forced his eyes off towards the front door. "But we have no clue what to do for it."

"You need help?" He found your eyes. "I could help if you want." Your foot swung from left to right as it stood by the point of your shoe.

"Help me with my project?" he blinked. "You would really do that?"

"Sure," you shrugged. "It's obvious you're not gettin' anywhere, probably because you're not thinking outside the box. You need to expand your horizon if you want good material. And to do that, you need to find a place that'll jump start your creativity.

"Oh," he blinked off in thought to consider the idea. "I see." Then a smile began to grow. "You may be on to something--"

"Bumi!" Chanwoo called from the kitchen. "Do you have a sec?"

You put the bottom of your foot back on the ground and eased yourself away from the counter. "We'll talk about it some more after work."

Taehyung watched you push open the door and disappear behind it, but kept watch long enough for him to witness Chanyeol walk right out of it.

Not wanting to make any eye contact, he turned his entire body towards the monitor. Maybe if he stood still, kept his eyes toward the counter, and kept from making a single peep, he wouldn't be noticed. If he was lucky, he'd turn invisible in plain sight.

"Hey, Shitface." But alas, he failed horribly. "You told Bumi about my little joke, huh?" The vexation in his voice was a hazardous sign to the poor male's safety over time, so he knew this was nowhere near 'playful'.

Taehyung inched his head in Chanyeol's direction, only to find him moving dangerously close. "'Joke'?" he questioned.

"Oh no," he shook his head. "You're too much of a smartass to play dumb with me, so take a fucking guess." Standing only a foot away from his prey, Chanyeol folded his arms across his chest.

 _'Does he mean the hot candy? Or...'_  His eyes widened. "The letter..." he muttered in realization.

His arms unfolded. "I knew it." Taehyung squeezed his eyes shut at the incoming claw. By the collar of his crisp clean white button up, Chanyeol snatched him up and dragged him up onto his toes. "It's 'cause we don't go to the same school anymore then you chose to get a bit ballsy, huh?"

Taehyung's head shook immediately. His hands wavered close by the tight fist that continued sinking its knuckles into his Adam's apple. _'Did Bumi tell him it was me who told her?'_

"It's fine," he nodded. "I'll make sure to make up for lost time during all our shifts together."

He shook his head, wanting to plead 'no', but his voice ran far away from his vocal cords.

"Park Chanyeol!" Both men heard the shout and glanced over to the door.

Before even seeing it open, said male released his prey and turned his body towards the not-so-happy voice; his hands clasped in front of him like the good boy he pretended to be.

You poked your head out first and asked, "What the hell are you doing out here?" You pushed the door open and your body followed to stand in front of him. With both hands on your hips, your burning gaze went from him to Taehyung trying to fix his collar, then to him again. "Doesn't look like you're apologizing."

Chanyeol rolled his eyes before asking, "what's the problem?"

"You baked the wrong batch of rice cakes."

Chanyeol's brows knitted from confusion. "No, I didn't."

"I'm telling you that you did." You held up a yellow piece of paper with the scripted daily specials and even more special prices beside them. Even a fancy border outlined it for beauty enhancement. "Look," you handed it over to him. "We're doing Mujigae-tteok*, not Baekseolgi-tteok*."

Chanyeol took it and mumbled the special baked good for a few seconds. His hand fell to his side, with the paper crumbling up in his fist. He then rolled his eyes off to a corner of the room and clicked his tongue at the end. 

"It's a good thing Chanwoo noticed before you tried making any more," you scolded. "So right now, instead of dicking around out here," you threw a thumb towards the kitchen, "you need to be in there trying to fix your mistakes." With a big huff, Chanyeol stormed his way past you and into the room to do just that.

The door finished swinging back shut, and all who were left were you and Taehyung. You took a glance toward the black-haired male, brows still furrowed, who couldn't help doing the same to you. "Looks like I came right in the nick of time."

His eyes wandered away, down onto the wooden floor that stood between you and him. "Yeah. Thanks."

"Imagine if I wasn't here to stop him," you crossed your arms over your chest. "What would you have done?"

His palm found and eased the back of his neck. "I'm not sure..." he frowned.

"You really need to learn how to stick up for yourself better. If you want to stop being treated like this, then you're gonna need to grow some balls damn soon."

"Yeah..." Words that were easier said than actually done.

 

By the end of the day, it was only you, Hoseok, and Taehyung. Chanyeol left after he had arrived, and Chanwoo finished his day a little earlier than usual as well.

"Alright, you can go now," Hoseok turned to you. "Taehyung and I can finish up here."

"Or you're the could go home instead. You should be able to take a break every now and then from cleaning after a busy day. Go," you tilted your head towards the door. "Taehyung and I can handle the rest.

Hoseok chuckled lowly. "Aw, what's gotten into you, hm?" He pinched and wiggled your cheek. "Acting so sweet all of a sudden. Are you sure?"

You started plucking his hands back from you. "Yes, we'll be fine. Now go."

"If you say so." Hoseok reached a hand up to your head, tussled, and passed by to get into the hall. "Thanks, guys," he said, pushing open the door.

"Come on," you ushered the other male to follow behind. "Let's get started." You pushed open the door and held it long enough for him to pass through after. "The sooner we finish, the better."

"You're right. It's better to leave as soon as we can before we get used poured on."

You came to a complete stop, only to turn around and ask. "It's gonna rain?"

Taehyung nodded. "Showers. You didn't know?"

"Of course not." you clicked your tongue and you turned your back on him. "Whatever, let's just hurry up and get out of here."

Taehyung watched you storm off to the bottle of cleaning wipes, sitting atop one of the booth tables, and furiously pluck one from the plastic casing. You then dropped it down onto the table and started wiping large anger-infused circles over it.

He really didn't want to interrupt your pissed party, but he had to bring up the subject from earlier. Wasn't that the reason you volunteered to stay in Hoseok's place? "So..." He wasn't so sure you heard him loud enough, so he cleared his throat rather loudly and continued. "You said earlier that we would continue our conversation?"

You turned to him with clear disturbance sketched all over your face. "Huh?"

The raucous reply stumped the explanation he was about to give into pieces. "Earlier...my project...You said..."

Getting what he was on about, you turned back to the booth and responded, "Oh yeah." Then you dragged the wipe onto the gold pleather seats and stretched back and forth along it.

"Before, when you suggested I go someplace else to expand my horizon and get good material, I thought it was a really good idea." Taehyung started sweeping the space in front of his feet, trying to gather dust as he trudged along. "I always go to specific areas of places, but I never really thought about going beyond that."

"If you don't try, then how do expect to pursue your dreams?" You couldn't see it, but the corners of his lips eased into a gracious smile.

However, by the time you were ready to move to the next booth, you managed to catch a glimpse of it. It stayed long enough for you to sense his gratitude, which turned out to be rather, dare you say, 'cute'?

"Alright, you two," Hoseok voice broke through the seven seconds of muteness. "I'm leaving the register's key here." There was little  _ting_  on the counter. "I also left Son-nim's office open for you, so don't forget to close it when you're all finished." As you relaxed from your hunched position, he walked down the floor to you and spoke low enough for you to hear. "Also, Bumi, don't forget to--"

"I know what to do," you cut in. "Leave already."

Hoseok sighed and tilted his lips close to your ear. "I was trying to tell you not to forget to play nice with Taehyung-ssi." You pulled your head back, just enough to get a load of deep brown eyes features. "But since you know..."

From the corner of your eye, Taehyung stood closet behind the counter trying to sweep trash into the dustpan. "He's not a problem anymore," you looked to him again. "We already cleared up the misunderstanding."

"Really?" he eyes widened. "Look at you," his smile came up with his hand when it patted the side of your upper arm, "Handling your problems like an adult."

"How else am I supposed to handle things?" You brushed his hand away like a little feather on your shoulder. "And stop treating me like I'm some child."

"I can't help it," he scrunched his nose and shook his head. "You and some of the other kids are like my siblings, yknow," he cooed.

You set your eyes to the ceiling and huffed. "Oppa," you began to fret. "Go home!"

"Okay, okay. Get home safe afterward. See you, Taehyung-ssi." He lifted his head at the mention of his name and waved the older good-bye as he pulled open the door and walked on through. Looking both ways before he crossed the street, Hoseok jogged across the street to stand before the door of his car.

After the chimes quieted down, Taehyung shifted his attention onto you as you moved to the first booth, to grab a new wipe, and over to one of the open tables in the middle of the floor.  _'Bumi should know the city a lot better than I do.'_  So he raised the question. "Do you have any recommendations? For places I should visit."

"I overheard some classmates of mine talking about Ihwa Mural Village. They said it was a really nice place to walk through."

He nodded. "That sounds good." Finished with the floor altogether, he set the broom and dustpan beside the door and walked over to the table, opposite to where you stood, to pull a wipe from the container. "Would you like to come with me?"

You glanced up at him. "Why don't you just go with your partner?"

"I get how that makes sense," he chuckled, stepping away to get to the table beside yours. "But, I think after yesterday, it's best that we go out separately and share what we've got whenever we see each other." He spread his palm down on the wipe and circles the surface for a bit.

"I don't know anything about photography." You moved to yet another table. The chairs from the last weren't dirty, so you left them. "It's not like I can help you with angles or stuff like that."

"That's not why I'm asking." He dragged the wipe onto one of the 2 chairs. "From what it sounds like, you haven't gone there either, have you?"

"No." But why invite you when he could just go by himself?

"I've never had anyone accompany me somewhere when I'm taking pictures. I usually just go wherever and return home when I'm satisfied." He moved to the next seat. "But now I think," he grunted. "Since I have a friend with similar tastes as me, why not take advantage of it." He stepped away from the seat. "And I don't really recall us talking much at the museum." He looked to you.

You shifted your body over to get to a chair faced him as you gave it some thought. _'Now that I think about it...we didn't.'_  You were too busy appreciating all the pieces of artwork you came across.

"If you come along with me, we could get to talk more about art. I'll even pay for your meal," he smiled.

"Hm..." A very valid reason to go along. Plus getting to talk about your hobbies some more? "Alright," your response was as nonchalant and cool-headed as ever. "I'll make time to go."

"Great," he said. "You can even bring your things to sketch, just so you won't have to feel like you're following me around all day."

Those circles into the chair slowed down, eventually coming to a standstill.  _'Bring my sketchbook...?'_  The suggestion of bringing your tools outside of your very room, put you in a rather dithered state. So much so, that those cheeks of yours reddened on the spot. And Taehyung bore witness to it all.

"Bumi-ssi," he blinked. "Your cheeks," he pointed to his own. They had quickly turned away from their original color. It was his first time witnessing such a sight. Even the tips of your ears went rogue.

"I don't know if I can do that," you tried picking up your pace, as if it hadn't been fazed in the first place.

"Why not?" Taehyung could tell by the quick pace at which you were wiping, and leaving to go to the next table, that something was definitely up. You pursed your lips.  _'Because!'_  Never, in all your years of picking up your sketch pad and a pencil, had you shown the finished products to anyone. Not even your parents got to see them. And to think that you would have to do such a thing now,  to someone you barely knew, freaked you out. Your sketches weren't bad at all, but neither were they something fantastic.

"Are you maybe worried about showing your drawings to me?" he guessed. When you failed to respond again, he made up his mind to reassure you that, "if you don't want to show me, you don't have to."

Even after that, you still refused to answer back. But you did take a peak in his direction.

 _'She really is embarrassed,'_  he thought, as a smile came back to him. It was to help reassure you even further, but mostly for himself.  _'That's so cute.'_

"I'm not that worried," you relented. "I'll bring it..." At the confirmation, your chest reacted wildly. Were you really doing this? Were you actually going to take your sketchbook outside? Into the public? Just for someone to see?  _'Which one do I bring?'_  In your case, you had designated books that carried specific drawing. Like one for the aesthetically pleasing, the alluring things you liked to capture; one for doodles, like flowers or the minimalistic things; one for people, that was only used if you were face timing a friend; and one for characters.  _'I could bring the aesthetic one. Or the one for my doodles.'_  Or maybe you just had to buy a new book for outside?

Despite all that thinking, the loud thunderclap from the sky, brought you away from that.  _'Nice...'_

"It's starting," he muttered, looking towards the window.

You heaved a sigh, starting to think how drenched you were going to look and feel by the time you reached home.

The next five minutes were spent without conversation and used to quickly finish up all the rest of the tables, chairs, windows, and counter. Just as you completed your tasks, the rain began to pour down mercilessly. You counted the cash and change from all three registers and Taehyung counted behind you. After collecting it all, you slipped the funds into a plastic bag and zipped it up. On your way to your uncle's office, he collected the supplies and put them back in the supply closet, left the bag in a safe inside your uncle's office, and parted ways to get changed.

After doing so, Taehyung grabbed his large umbrella from beside the locker room and went to register. When it was your time, you pushed open the door to clock out. But before you stood before the machine, your gaze flashed up at the large window, just to get a look at how bad this shower was going to be. But out the corner of your eyes, waiting patiently by the door, hands folded over the umbrella handle, stood your co-worker, whom you assumed to have left already.

You squinted in confusion, as you pulled one side of your earphone out of our ear and asked, "why're you still here?" You proceeded in putting in your employee numbers and password.

Taehyung pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "I wasn't sure if you had a ride home or not, but if you don't..." He then noticed how your hairstyle went from everything falling towards down your shoulders to up into a ponytail. "Do you usually walk home?" he hiked his bag strap further up his shoulder. "Or do you take the bus?"

You stepped away from the register and went around the counter. "I take the train..." The beam he gave you took you aback some.

"I do too." You finally stood before him. "We could walk there together," he unstrapped it.

"You don't mind?" You slanted your head away in question and he nodded in reply. You then flipped your hoodie on and stuffed your phone in your pocket.

Taehyung pushed open the umbrella and pulled open the door. "After you," he shaded you early on before you even stepped out onto the concrete. At the turn of the lock and the flip of the light, he ducked his head under the umbrella and closed the door behind him.


	16. Chapter 16

The following day, Chanyeol picked you up from your house for the sake of meeting your friends at Dongdaemun together. Chaeyoung and Baekyun was the next to be picked up, but that was beside the point. He took pride in being able to please the fair lady, whom he had the pleasure of calling his woman, in any way he could.

You exchanged greetings with him before seating yourself down in the passenger seat of the black interior car and closing the door. Your elbow immediately found comfort on the edge of the little cliff, beside the door handle, and your temple found rest on the back of your hand. For most of the entire ride, you kept your mouth closed and gaze tied to the passing scenery, just past your knuckles.

From the outside, you looked slightly cross; like you wanted to disengage from the rest of the world for the remainder of the day. But in actuality, you were far too gone in your thoughts, trying to figure out such a simple problem from a perplexed standpoint.  _'I think I'm gonna have to buy a new sketchbook....'_  But the unknown tiny masochist in you wanted to see the look on his face if you were to bring something already drawn in. Would it be good? Or bad?

On the other hand, Chanyeol came to the conclusion that he just wasn't strong enough to sit through the silence anymore. "Hey." His voice pulled you away from your thoughts. "You're not too mad at me, are you?" He slowed down at the next light. Most times it was just a case of that 'resting bitch face', but didn't you look a little irritated than usual.

 "Tell me exactly what you think I'm mad at you for?" You watched as two cute kids skipped merrily down the sidewalk, hand in hand, with their father leading them down the path.

"About last night," he clarified. "It was raining, remember?"

How could you forget? You almost got drenched in it. "And?"

"And?" His back flew from the back of his seat and his wide eyes turned to you. "You hate the rain! I should've been there to pick you up." His back hit the seat with a thump, as his eyes set back on the road ahead. "But I was so damn tired that I went to bed early." He leaned his cheek into his fist. "By the time I woke up, it was pouring cats in dogs at one in the morning."

"No use pulling your hair out about it now."

"No, I'm your boyfriend. It's the least I can do for you."

You automatically squinted at such a reason. Like a tick, the word 'boyfriend' struck a tiny nerve. Even before you became official, he would pick you up from place to place a few times, so what the hell was this 'boyfriend' excuse? The car jerked slightly as pull off. It felt like such a suffocating word. A word you were gonna be attached to 'for a while'.

He sighed, shaking his head. "I feel bad. I can only imagine how soaked you were." He eased more weight onto the gas to speed past a slower car.

"First of all," you started. "I don't expect you to pick me up from work, school, nor my apartment every damn time. You need to save your gas for yourself. Second, I was perfectly fine getting home last night. It wasn't my first time walking home in the rain, y'know."

For a split second, his eyes glanced down to the large green and white umbrella slanted in between your thighs. "It's definitely not raining today," he slowed down and turned the corner for an open parking space in front of the cafe. "What's the umbrella for?" 

"It's not mine," you said. "I'm returning it today."

"Is that why we're stopping by the cafe before we meet up with the rest?"

As soon as he finished pulling into the space, he put his vehicle into park and shut it off. You moved the umbrella out from in between your legs, opened the door, and closed it back the same time as him. Chanyeol followed you into the cafe and finished holding the door to pass by.

You didn't even need to search long before spotting the person you needed to see. Forgetting he was with you, you left him behind and caught up to the speedy male as he got back to the register. "Taehyung." When he turned around, his brows raised.

"Bumi-ssi. Hi," he smiled some. But it wavered soon after his eyes flickered up to the large alpha standing behind you, staring right at him while his thumbs kept tucked away in the pockets of his grey jeans.

"I brought your umbrella back." His attention wandered back as you held it out for him to take. "Thanks for letting me use it."

"You're welcome," he took it. "Better me getting a little wet than having you not having anything at all. It wouldn't have been right letting you walk out of the cafe with nothing to cover you." He glanced upward, this time finding slightly furrowed brows on Chanyeol. The look in his eyes? Nothing less than judgmental.

"You borrowed an umbrella from Shitface?" He cut his way into the conversation. "Now I really wish you would've called." You looked over your shoulder and met eyes with him. "If this was your only option left."

"I would've preferred if you kept your mouth shut if I knew sooner you were only gonna spew shit over my shoulder." The crease eased out in his brows. "Instead of making him feel like he did something wrong, you should be thanking him for not letting me get drowned like a rat last night." A table of nearby seated customers became a table of onlookers. "It's like I'm dealing with a fucking child here."

From Taehyung, back to you, Chanyeol didn't seem to have anything further to say. Seeing as how he was only going to further earn himself a seat in the doghouse, he clenched his teeth, tight enough for the veins to print from his neck, and averted his gaze.

That said and done, you turned back to Taehyung, who was left standing with parted lips and round eyes. "You didn't end up with a fever or anything did you?"

"Uh, yes." He nodded. "I used my book bag as shelter, so I wouldn't get too wet. _'She's carrying on as if nothing happened!'_ His eyes began to wander.  _'Please, please don't let this come back to bite me in the ass.'_   And Taehyung didn't need to look in Chanyeol's direction for the third time to feel the pressure of the angry man.

"Mm...Okay," you blinked. "Then we're gonna leave. We just stopped by so that I could return it to you. See you tomorrow."

He nodded. "Bye." The swing of your lengthy ponytail, followed by the back of a shamed male, was what he was left to look at. Before the chimes went off at your departure, Taehyung's eyes fell to the counter, and the corners of his lips fell along with them. 

 _'Shitface...'_  The number one demeaning name that stuck to him throughout his high school days, and now followed him even into his adult life. He looked to his flipped palm and brought it to his left cheek. It was the side where the acne littered his face the most. The other side wasn't too bad though. Then his fingers slid down to cop a feel, before checking in with his nose. His shoulders slumped. This was just a fine reminder of the kind of role he played within this cast. In every cast.

 

"Aw, what's wrong with you, hyung?" Daniel nudged Chanyeol on the arm. "How come you're not stickin' close to Bumi?"

"Why do you think?" He didn't bother sparing a glance, as he was too busy watching you from across the room. "I got 'er mad." Neither of you said a thing to one another after getting back in the car.

"And now you're mad that she's mad." The older huffed, leaving the younger in chuckles. "At least do something about your facial expression. You look like some creep waiting to hit on her as soon as she gets alone." Chanyeol pulled his eyes away finally looked to his friend. "Just go talk to her already." He clapped a patting hand on his shoulder and left him to go look at the nice sweaters hanging on the wall across the room.

But he didn't feel like.  _'She practically made a fool out of me back there.'_   And it wasn't like he said anything terrible. Last time was a little understandable, but this time really wasn't that big of a deal.  _'It's like she's becoming the Shitface protection program. Seriously, didn't she say he was a damn nuisance?'_

Chanyeol sighed, shifting his gaze down to the tiles beneath his feet. "The hell is going on here?" he muttered. He didn't expect to have a whole bunch of lovey-dovey moments with you; that just wasn't the kind of girl he had known you to be. But something sweeter than the past few days would be nice. You guys were starting this relationship off on the wrong foot, and that wasn't okay. 

The last thing he wanted to do was split up.  _'Daniel's right. Maybe I should just man up and apologize.'_  He didn't want any lingering tension, so hopefully, a simple apology could lessen that. And if he was honest with himself, he wanted to take a spot beside you.

But then what was to happen to his pride? "Tsk." He scratched the back of his black locks. Irritation began to eat him back up, but the thought of cuddling up to you as soon as possible, made the feeling vanish.  _'She's lucky I'm a good guy who cares.'_ Chanyeol took a second to huff out.  _'It's now or never I gue--'_ As soon as he lifted his eyes, he found a feline-like pair locked onto him; their owner taking a cool stroll in his direction. "Hey," he greeted when you stopped in front of him. "I was just coming to..."

The weight that slipped into his hands, pulled his vision down again. Three, slightly heavy, shopping bags now sat dangling from his palms. As soon as he glanced upward, a hand took hold of his jaw and yanked his face down to your level. Though his response was in a slight delay, he closed his eyes and allowed for his face to be intensely controlled by a hand half the size of his own; There was even the possibility of his jaw being punctured by finely manicured nails. 

"Bunbun," he breathed, lifting his eyelids. His lips continued to linger close after the painful separation from your lips.

"Let's go." You grabbed his empty hand and led him to the mirror where Chaeyoung and Baekyun still stood by. "We're gonna go eat."

When you arrived beside the two, Daniel was now walking over. Chanyeol pulled his hand out of yours, just so he could slip his fingers into the spaces instead. You glanced up at him just to find him doing the same, the only difference was, he had a little smile on his lips.

"My bad," he said.

He acted like a little brat towards certain people, but when he wasn't being immature, he acted his own age and treated the people around him with care, especially the woman who sprung hearts into his eyes. Yes, your insides still somewhat burned with annoyance and you still weren't sure about how good of an idea this relationship was, but part of you was curious to see how things would turn out if you actually put a piece of your heart into it. Maybe you would fall for him once and for all like he truly wanted.

 

On his way home, later that day, Taehyung sat on the train, scrolling through his phone in search of remedies to get rid of the partial source for his agony. "Toothpaste?" he blinked at one of the options.  _'Leave it on for a few hours and...'_  He sighed. He didn't have time to leave such a thing on his face for a few hours. He scrolled a little and stopped and the next remedy. "Baking soda?" Taehyung read the instructions as to how to apply it to his face and then looked at the time limit for it to stay on.  _'Only a few minutes until it dries,'_  he smiled. 'This looks good. And I can do it twice a day to speed up the process.' The ends of his lips began to spread wide.  _'New me, here I come!'_

Before he returned home, Taehyung made a little pit stop to the store to pick up the main ingredient for his remedy. When returned home, chucked his bag and umbrella one side, got some home clothes together and jumped into the shower. As soon as he got out, he went into the kitchen in his navy t-shirt and loose pajama pants to grab a small unused plastic container and brought it back to the bathroom. Inside, he mixed the baking soda and tap water and mixed it with his index and used the next three fingers to apply the fresh paste onto his cheek and nose.

Taehyung straightened himself out to check how well he head spread the paste. With a hum, he confirmed it was good enough. "Seven minutes should do just fine, right?" He walked out of the bathroom and went to sit in his room for a while. He then plopped down in his bed and right beside him, his phone screen glowed revealed the new message he had just received. "Bumi-ssi," he scooped up the device to fully read it.

He went to set his phone aside but paused before his fingers brushed against his black sheet, he reviewed the 2 texts once again.  _'I should ask her when she's free to go to the place.'_

 


	17. Chapter 17

As soon as you walked out the station along the small spread of people, a gust of wind slammed into your face, carrying your hair out as it rushed past. You shrugged the fur straps of your black faux-fur tote bag further up your shoulder and pulled down the tip of your black snapback to block it from disturbing you any further.

From left to right you looked in search of him. Taehyung had sent you a text letting you know that he was going to be standing right outside the 2nd exit. Just then, not too far up ahead, a large, waving piece of paper caught your attention among the small crowd, helping you focus on the body attached to it. There you found him standing only a couple feet away, with his back now easing back against the wall.

You inhaled and huffed the anxiousness out through your nose and continued on to meet with him.  _'There's only a sketchbook and pencils in here, and yet I feel like I'm hiding a big dildo in here!'_  You plucked the earphones from your ears, stuck them into the pocket of your white polaroid windbreaker, and greeted him casually with a, "hey."

His smile gradually widened, pushing his cheeks closer to his eyes. "Hi," he said, slipping his fingers under the strap of his camera bag, and shifting it up his shoulder. His camera itself hung from the strap around his neck. "I went and got us a map from up ahead," he pointed down the road, "and came back to wait for you." He then shifted it over for you to see.

You stepped closer to get a closer look. "Makes sense they give people maps for this place. Otherwise, we'd get lost looking for the murals." He hummed in agreement. "Do you have specific ones you want to see?" The wind picked up again, this time trying to take your cap along with its strong gust.

"Yeah," he nodded. "But, I want to go through them all," he traced his index finger along the murals path, "and maybe go off the original path for a bit to see what I can get." Then traced it along the gray path outside of them. "If you don't mind." He glanced over to you.

"We're here for your project, so go wherever you want," you said. "I'm just following your lead."

"That's true, but...if there's someplace that you want to sit down and draw, just let me know. I wouldn't want you to start getting bored."

At the mention of the word 'draw', your nerves went on defense mode. "I'll be fine." You squeezed the strap of the bag.

"Did you bring it with you?" Taehyung's gaze shifted from the map and onto the bag, unconsciously leaning down towards it. "Is it inside there?" he glanced back up at you.

Your forehead scrunched, as you took a step back. "I have it," you muttered, shifting your eyes away from his curious ones.

"Sorry," an awkward, apologetic smile surfaced. "I didn't mean to be nosy."

"It's fine," you said. "Where to first?"

"Um," he looked back to the map for a split second, before looking down a path. "It looks like we should be going down this way first." He pointed to his right. Then he passed off the map to you. "At the top, there's an interesting  introduction to the village."

You started giving the map a read and along the way gave a brow raise or two from fascination. "That is pretty interesting," you smiled. "Let's go."

 

Past an art theater, a park and a plaza you walked, turning your heads to see if you could find any other murals on your way. In three blocks and two turns, you arrive at the first mural. A picture of a grinning orange cat with spread paws.

"How cute," you said, with half a smile.

Along the next route, you walked into a red zone, which meant you were now in a neighborhood and had to keep our voice low. A few people walking ahead and behind you two, fixed their tones as well. And whenever you were back on a green zone again, things conversation went back to their normal levels.

In between each mural on the map, you passed much more art pieces around other places. Of course, you couldn't resist getting a few pictures with them, both with your phone and Taehyung's camera. But halfway through the nice journey of this village, you began to think.

 _'Everything is so amazing, but there's nothing that I wanna draw yet.'_  And so you wondered.  _'Am I ever gonna be able to take this thing out?'_  You looked down to your purse. If not, then it would be a relief, yet a bit of a letdown. The further you walked, the more you wanted to find something to draw. Something to strike inspiration into your heart and an itch in your fingers. 

"Bumi-ssi." You looked up to him. "Are you getting tired? Should we go find someplace to sit down and eat? I looked up some places to eat around here, and there's a pizza place not too far from the village."

"Sure," you nodded. "Let's go." You put a hand on your stomach. It did feel a bit empty inside.

After about a twenty-minute bus ride to this pizza place, you went inside, sat down and ordered. Your head turned ever which way to get a look at the place, but your attention focused back on the scenery beyond the window. A long path with people walking up and down it, it was a rather nice view.

"The day's been pretty nice so far," Taehyung said, drawing your eyes towards him. There was a friendly little curve in his lips, as he spoke to you.

"It has," you agreed, taking your cap from off your head and raking deviant strands down with your nails, so they could sit neatly with the rest of your head.

"It's a bit unfortunate that I didn't get anything to work with." He brushed his finger along the screen. "But I did save some for memories."

You sat your jaw down on the back of your wrist. "What're you gonna do for your project then?"

"It's okay, I still have time to find something before it's due. And I trust  Young Ho is doing his best to find something as well." Then his gaze lowered to the furry straps of your bag. "But," he pointed to it, "it looks like you didn't get bored."

You lifted your head away and followed his finger down, "Yeah," you pressed your lips into a thin line. You then knocked the straps down from against the seat and down onto the bag itself, out of his sight. As you watched them slump over, that was all you could keep doing. Stare at the bag, undecided on whether or not you should take it out. And if you did, he would definitely ask about wanting to see your drawings, right?

Taehyung folded his arms on the table and tucked them close to his chest. "I know you might not be comfortable showing your drawings to me, but I still can't help being curious," he said, before looking away to the rest of the restaurant.

You felt a tingle of eagerness in your chest. A large part of you was rather antsy to the point of wanting to see what his reaction would be like if you did. And it wasn't too late for you to see it either. After most of the day of it just sitting in there, you had more than enough time to think about whether you really wanted to bring your sketchbook out for the eyes of another person.

Your hand grew closer towards the mouth of the bag, and as it did, the pounding of your heart thickened. You slid the book out and laid it down on the table, thinking,  _'now what?'_  There wasn't anything you wanted to draw, so what was your excuse? You took a second to glance over at him.  _'He's staring...'_  

"Are you gonna draw something now?" His brows arched.

You put your fingertips on the edge of the sketchbook and slid it down until it bumped his forearm. "You said you were curious." Your heart felt like it was pacing back and forth. "If you want to, you can look through it. In exchange," you continued. "I'll go through more of your pictures."

The ends of Taehyungs lips curled into a smile again. "You don't mind?" You gave him a barely audible 'yes', and he immediately passed the device down your way. You both reached for each other's things at the same time, but instead of actually focusing on his camera, you focused on him and your sketchbook.

As soon as he flipped to the most recent page, you held your breath in your throat. His slightly widened eyes made yours widen the same time. _'What?'_  you blinked, going from the page and back to him. 

Taehyung flipped the page and stared. Then he flips another page and kept on staring. For the next seven pages, he just stared down at your drawings, shaking his head with parted lips.

 _'What is it?'_  you shouted.  _'Do they suck?'_  Your brain began re-wiring itself to tell you that they do indeed and needed to be hidden away as soon as possible.

"Bumi-ssi--"

"Yes?" you immediately answered. Your eyes shook as his head raised from the pages of the 9th drawing. "Are they bad?" It was hard to mask even the slight fall in your tone or even less your face.

But he quickly shook his head. "No way," he glanced back down at them. "They're good." He looked back up to you. "Really good."

The tingles from earlier bursted open and spread all throughout your chest. "You think?" His nod triggered something in your cheeks. You allowed your eyes to wander down to his camera. "Thank you." You cushioned your satisfaction with a softened tone. You took a hand off his camera to hold the tip of your reddening ear and soothed it with your thumb and index. Then relief came by and settled on top of your chest. It was just one single opinion, yet it made all the more of an impact.

"Is there more like this?" he asked. 

"I have three others at home. They each have different kinds of drawings in them. That one is for my doodles," you explained.

"Three others?" his eyes shot open. "But I thought you said you hadn't drawn a lot."

You darted your eyes up to him.  _'He actually remembered that?'_ Something like that you thought he would've forgotten. It just reminded you of how eager he was that night.

"What do the others have?" he leaned forward a bit.

"There's one for people, one for characters," your gaze started to fall again. "And the last one is where I draw things that seem pretty to me..." It wasn't too long before you became hepped up from his own curiosity and tried to fight back a pleased smile. In fact, it was making you happier than you thought.

"Tell me if I'm wrong, he pushed his glasses further of the bridge of his nose. "But...am I the first person to see your drawings?"

"Yeah..."

Taehyung's eyes widened in each blink. "Why keep these to yourself all this time?"

You pushed out your lips. "Because it's the one part of me I don't have to show others when I leave the house. I don't need to worry about any comments or how many people like or hate my drawings. It's something just for me." You then huffed, letting your back hit the seat. "But I guess that ends today..."

"Well," Your eyes lifted to him once more. "Thank you for sharing them with me," he smiled. "I feel honored that I'm the first person to ever see these."

"Sure." The tint in your ears and cheeks began to fade little by little.

"Can I see more of what you have later on?" You hesitated, yet answered with a single nod.

"Here's your lemonade." The waiter put your drink down beside you. "And your coke," and Taehyung's in front of him. Then he glanced at either of you and said, "your pizzas will be right out shortly," he smiled.

 


	18. Chapter 18

While you were passing through the first set again, it reminded you of how absorbed you had gotten from the first time you snooped through. Each building, every street, car, tree, and body of water that was taken with this camera looked so amazing. No matter if it was captured during the night time, or taken in broad daylight, he managed to bring such a beauty to these normal places. Almost like each picture had a tiny story to tell.

"Hey," you brought his attention away from the people outside the window. "You ever thought about starting a blog for your pictures?"

Taehyung's eyes widened. "A blog?" His eyes blinked down at his drink. "No," he shook his head. "I never really thought about it. Just like you, it's something for me to just enjoy."

"If you're gonna become a freelancer or something else in the future." You blinked your eyes down to your drink. "Shouldn't you get your pictures out there?"

 _'She remembered my dream...'_  He pursed his lips, hesitating on what to do. This was the second time you had gone about giving him some tasteful advice. "I guess I could give it a try." He grabbed his beverage and smoothed his thumbs out against the glass.  However, he didn't want to be the only one receiving advice. You were nice enough to care about his future, that he wanted to say a few words for yours. "I'll try it, but only if you try to show your drawings to someone else other than me."

The next sip you took swerved over into your windpipe, sending your body flying back against the seat, and a hand to cup your mouth. You tried coughing it back up a few times before asking with a strained voice. "What?"

"You've got the talent. And if you're planning on becoming an art teacher, you're going to need to show your drawing's at some point?" He pulled a little smile.

You furrowed your brows and pushed your lips upward. "I don't need to show my drawings to become an art teacher."

"Think about the kids you're going to have to teach. If you're teaching them how to draw, they're going to have to follow from your example, aren't they?"

You looked off to the large window beside you, groans of disapproval leaving your throat. You then set your elbow down on the table and smooshed your cheek in the palm of your hand. He did have a point. But who was going to be interested enough to want to see them? "Who am I supposed to show them to first?"

"You could start with your parents." He moved his mouth closer to his straw and took a sip.

You shifted your gaze back to him. That was a reasonable answer, wasn't it? "I guess that's a good place to start," you grumbled. "Fine..." Blush tipped your ears in a near instant. "I'll try." The rectangular grin that spread out his cheeks, complete with sound giggles, broke out a little smile of your own.

 

Afterward, the waiter came back with your lunch and both of you devoured every last bite of your platters and sipped every last drop from your glasses. As Taehyung promised, the bill was on him, so once he finished paying for it, you guys left for the subway. Instead of catching a bus, you walked among other pedestrians to get back to there. 

You tried your best to be the least bit helpful by pointing to him what you thought to be good material for his project. Whatever didn't suit his taste, he would turn down gently, but whatever did, he stood still for a few seconds and saved it to his gallery.

Though, whenever he looked up, he would catch every other person, that wasn't in a hurry or snuggled up close to their partner, with gawking eyes that didn't peel away until the last second. Surely it wasn't because of him, but the beautiful woman walking beside him with her phone held up close to her face.

But who wouldn't be attracted to you? You were just too stunning. Even your large ears carried a certain attraction of their own. If someone walked up to you and tried having a conversation, that assertive and intimidating behavior you had going on is what they would get each time. However,  if it was personality they searched for, they'd find how discerning you were about art; how enthusiastic you got to talk about it, yet a little shy when it came to your own. The smile you wore whenever you were satisfied with something, was simply put: cute. Thinking about the very few times he had seen it, placed a familiar warmth to his chest.

He took a peek out the corner of his eyes to see your side profile. As his stare lingered on, the slightly more bewitched he became by the second.  _'She's so--'_

"I was wondering."

Taehyung snapped his view back ahead of him. The close call immediately shook up the pace of his heartbeat.

"It must be hard not getting a pitch black picture when you're out at night." You looked up from your phone and at him. "Do you use a regular flash to take those night shots you have? And how do you keep yourself so damn still?"

"I--I take my tripod with me when I'm out at night, so it keeps my camera steady for me," he explained. "And it's actually bad if you use a normal flash for those kinds of shots. It'll mess up the picture. Instead, it's best if you find a place with good enough lighting to get the best exposure." As he continued to explain, his heart rate began to smooth out a little. "But that's not at all, you need to have IOS, aperture, and shutter speed in check to get that perfect shot. For dark places, I raise my shutter speed and IOS. When I'm taking a picture of something reflecting off the water, it's very important that I use as much color as I can."

"That sounds complicated," you said. And because of that, you barely processed any of what he just said.

Taehyung chuckled. "Not really," he shook his head. "You get used to it with experience." Feeling it was alright to take a look back in your direction, he turned his head. However, he didn't realize how terrible of a decision it was until he felt the unwelcomed thud of cupid's arrow pierce his chest.

 _Ba-dump._  His face fell.

 _Ba-dump._   _'Oh...' Ba-dump. 'Oh crap.'_

Staring up at him with those feline-like eyes that reflected his face, you blinked once, then twice and said, "all the more reason for you to show off your hard work."

Taehyung swallowed, his lips parting.  _'Please, no.' Badump._

"Taehyung?"

His heart replied with another thump, but he was verbally forced to answer, "yes?" He blinked his eyes down to his stepping feet. "Sorry," he said. But what he really wanted to do, was stop dead in his tracks, hold the sides of his head and ask himself just how crazy he was for picking up this random feeling.

 _'Die! Die!'_  he cursed the troublesome feeling. The last time he picked up such a feeling, it hadn't done anything for him in return but give him embarrassment and heartbreak. In truth, it had been his own fault for giving place to such emotion in the beginning. Knowing there was no way of having those feelings returned, yet indulging himself in a state of daydreaming, secret gazes, and useless hope, until ultimately rejection.

But maybe--Just maybe, if he quit while he was ahead this time, buried those feeling underneath the sand and never thought about them again, they would go away in no time at all.

"So!" You blinked back at the sudden rise in his voice. "Um...your name." His thumb and middle finger pushed the sides of his frames further up his nose. "It's the same as the cafe. Is it a coincidence? Or..." Changing topics was the first step to breaking away, but there definitely wasn't going to be any more head turns to the left for the time being.

You grabbed the lob of your ear as you faced forward again. "My uncle told me that he was looking for a name to give the cafe before he invested in it, so after he heard the name my parents gave me at the hospital, he took it an ran with it. Of course, there was asking my parents' permission first."

"I bet you get that question a lot." He wanted to have that eye-to-eye contact, but it wasn't possible for the moment.

"Not really," you said, rubbing it. "I guess I more or less became some kind of mascot when I started worki--

The sweet strings of a guitar came ringing from your phone, interrupting the rest of your sentence and pulling Taehyung's attention towards it. You lowered your gaze to the check the caller ID and found Baekyun ringing up your phone. You then pulled your headphones out of the jack, an accepted the call.

You held the phone up to your ear. "Hey, what's up?"

He wasn't supposed to be watching at all, and yet, Taehyung found himself peeking at you from the corner of his eye. And as soon as he did, a small gust of flutters shook up his heart as it rushed by.  _'Mind your business!'_ He forced himself to look straight.  _'Just mind your business, Kim, and everything will be fine.'_


	19. Chapter 19

Chanyeol pushed open the door to his bedroom with a strong bump of the hip and asked, "so, how'd I do, teach?" In his steady grip was a wooden tray filled with snacks and two plastic cups of juice. Sliding the tray onto the desk, his pen and it slid if pen holder, guitar picks, and books got pushed to the back.

"You're not saying anything and it's making me worry." He turned to you, knuckles firm on his hips. Then he made his way towards you and positioned himself right above you. 

"Shoo!" you slammed the textbook against your chest and flicked your fingers at him. "I'm not finished." The single sheet of looseleaf paper with half your corrections on it wasn't ready to be looked at just yet. With a blue inked pen in your hand, you carefully graded his answers to the few textbook problems you gave him to solve.

"I brought snacks." He slipped a palm underneath your bang and combed it back a couple times, watching it sling back into position when he reached the ends.

"Thanks. I'll get to them in a bit," you watched him turn his back to the bed and plop down beside you. He then scooted himself all the way back until his back was pressed against the wall. Finally getting to ease the book back down onto your knees, you continued to mark x's and o's across the page.

Once you reached the end, you flipped it over and got started with the back, going through his showed work and leaving feedback on the ones he got wrong. 

Staring at your mane that draped down your back, the sides of Chanyeol's mouth tugged upward. "I appreciate the help, Bunbun." He clasped his hands and set them neatly on top of his lap.

"Mm," you hummed, scanning the page from top to bottom. "And don't call me that."  

He scoffed. "Yeah, yeah." His head rolled off to the side and his eyes down to this dark sheets.  _'I'm forbidden from calling you a by the nickname some other guy gave to you.'_  The brief vision of your phone screen entered his mind. He had only gotten to see a mear glimpse of the name sitting on your messages before having the phone snatched out of his hand. He lifted his eyes back to your back.  _'She said it was a friend, but maybe he's some ex she can't leave behind. Or does she just hate when I call her that because it brings up bad memories before we met?'_

"I finished."

Chanyeol rolled his head back up straight. "What's my score?"

You twisted your body around and held up the sheet. "Seven out of ten," you announced. "Good job." The two of you reached out the same time so he could take the paper.

"Not bad," he nodded, pushing his bottom lip out. " And you left me some feedback, too." He flipped the sheet to the back to see the rest. "How kind."

You stretched your arms out overhead and stretched out the scrunched up kinks inside your joints. "I tried," you sighed. Your arms fell back down to your side before you picked yourself up off the bed and went to go attack those snacks.

"Hold up," his voice caught your steps halfway out on the floor. You took a glance over your shoulder and found him slowly tapping at his lips. "Did you forget already?" Chanyeol set the loose leaf beside his thigh and waited.

You turned yourself back around and retraced your steps back to the bed. You climbed up onto the bed with and listened to it break the brief silence with a creak. On your all fours, you crawled in between the gap he created from his raised knees. You then took to your knees and eased yourself down on crossed feet.

With your hands neatly resting on top your knees, you closed your eyes, leaned in close, and left a smooch right onto those expectant lips. "One." Then again. "Two." And again. "Three." The hands briefly resting on your knees began roaming about. Down Chanyeol's thighs and towards the drawstrings of his sweats.

"Five." Your fingers slipped under the hem of his long sleeve. "Six." Your tips brushed past the waistband of his briefs. And as soon they hit the first pack, you felt a strong grip squeezed your hand and tear them away immediately.

When you opened your eyes, Chanyeol's was already gazing back before he took the final kiss for himself. "Seven." His eyes dipped his eyes to your lips, then back to your confused eyes.

"You don't wanna?" You dropped your gaze from his lips and onto your still seized hands.

Finally, he released them and rested his palms down on your knees instead. "We don't need to screw like bunnies every time you come over. Even though I like it. "

"Oho?" You scoffed a chuckle. "So you can actually turn me down?"

"I didn't ask you to be my girlfriend so I could officially fuck you whenever I wanted. If that's all I cared about, I wouldn't have fallen for you as hard as I did." His hand smoothed leisurely over your kneecap. "Did you think that's all I wanted from you?"

"No." Is what your lips said.  _'Can't say the same for me though.'_

The room stood in silence. For a few seconds longer, Chanyeol's eyes didn't dare to leave before a sigh broke through the air. "Come're." He grabbed the back of your head and gently brought your ear down to the part of his chest where his heartbeat started steadily. "Hear that?"

Gradually, it gained speed. The knocking of his heart thumping against the drum of your ear. It was thick but fast. Then it vamped up, getting faster. This must have been how it reacted each time you hung out together; even more when you were alone; not to mention getting to have sex with each other for the first time.

"You see me playin' it cool all the time, but this is what's always going on, on the inside." He inhaled and exhaled carefully. "I honestly don't know how I've been keeping this up." He smiled for a split second but it faltered. "I'm not afraid to show this kind of side to you, especially if it deepens our relationship."

He swallowed, now beginning to wonder,  _'what's she thinking about?'_   The more he thought about it, the more anxiety surged through his veins and his mouth. "I know it's been annoying for you up until now, right? But I'm still grateful that you finally gave into a pest like me."

You huffed your chuckle through your nostrils. "The worst pest."

Chanyeol followed up with a short laugh of his own, only for it die down for his next line. "This past week or so hasn't been so great for us, but I don't plan on giving up so easily."

"It only hasn't been great because you can't seem to stop being a bully. Am I right? Or am I wrong?"

Chanyeol sighed and tilted his head to the side. "I prefer the term jokester..."

"From now on, I want you to stop treating people like shit. Especially him. He's a friend of mine."

His brows creased and his hands grabbed your shoulders, pushing you off his chest to check if what came out of your mouth was a serious talk. "Your friend? He's your friend now? All of a sudden?"

"It wasn't that sudden," you said.

Chanyeol squinted. "I thought you said he was a nuisance."

"I changed my mind," you shrugged. "He's not. And if we're being fair," you crossed your arms over your chest. "Your b.s helped me create that image about him. Taehyung's as harmless as he looks. He's a good kid."

 _'If 'good kid' is the new code for 'a loser', then sure. He's a real good kid.'_  There wasn't any legitimate reason as to why Park Chanyeol hated Taehyung or Chanwoo or even any 'loser' who crossed his path. They were just an eyesore of sorts. Looking weird. Being weird. The amusement he got from messing with them, especially being able to get away with it 99.9% of the time made him want to do it even more.

"But back to what I was saying before. I don't want you to stop at just him, but all the other people you've tried your best to fuck over up until now. It's annoying and it makes you look like a complete jackass, especially when I know you're not. You can be a good kid, too when you try." You pulled at his chin.

It was going to be easy tossing away the mean streak tailing him since high school. "Then what am I gonna do with all the nice pet names I gave to all my buddies?" The snicker that passed through a crooked smile was soon put to rest with the in your brows. "Okay, Okay. I'll try joking around a bit less." But.  _'I won't be making any promises.'_  If these words were enough to put ice on the slight burn inside their relationship, then without a doubt he'd say them.

"I told myself that I would try my best in this relationship, so don't make me regret it."

Chanyeol huffed a chuckle through his nose. "Getting hyped on the idea of dating me, huh?" He smiled.

Your index pushed into his forehead and shoved it off to the side. "You wish that was the case, don't you?" 

His head went limp for a second before he rolled his neck back to focus on you. The corners of his lips then spread out into a grin, like the flutters in his chest.

 


End file.
